Immunity
by Penguinn
Summary: A familiar threat in Johto rises once again, and its up to trainers all over the region to take them down.
1. Chapter 1: Pilot

**Hello readers, I see you have found my story!**

**Before I start, I need to establish a few things before I begin:**

**No, I don't own Pokémon or these characters, only the storyline (Or at least, the part I'm telling)**

**This is my FIRST fanfiction, if anything is wrong like grammar, title placement, etc. please tell me**

**This has been rated K+, but that might change...**

**Enjoy! :^) And be sure to review!**

* * *

**Chapter one: Pilot**

* * *

**2 Months Ago... the Kanto region**

Three figures were hiding in a tree, spying on a nearly adult trainer with a Pikachu on his shoulders. Their names were Jesse, James, and Meowth from Team Rocket.

"With our new invention, we should be able to snag Pikachu quite easily." James said.

"Yeah! Then the boss will finally give us a promotion! I'll be Top Cat once again!" Meowth added.

Just then, Jesse's X-Transceiver began to ring, "It's the boss." She told her companions.

Lowering their voices, Jesse answered, "Hello? Jesse speaking."

A gruff voice answered her, "I'm firing you three."

* * *

**Saturday, July 7th, 8:12 Am, New Bark Town, Johto**

"WAKE UP!"

Jimmy, an 18-year old boy woke up with a start after hearing those words. Quickly taking in his surroundings, he looked at the culprit. It was Vincent, another 18-year old boy that Jimmy has known for around 10 years. Vincent was one of Jimmy's best friends, but he had a habit of getting on people's nerves.

"I'm trying to get some sleep man." Jimmy told him.

"Your Mom wants you up." Vincent answered.

"I don't care."

"She's making waffles."

Waffles were Jimmy's favorite food, so naturally, Vincent got his attention, "I'll be down in 5 minutes."

"I'll see you then." Vincent said, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Jimmy quickly got dressed into his day clothes and walked downstairs, Vincent wasn't lying, his mom was making waffles. Jimmy walked to the kitchen table and sat next to his two friends. Vincent, who was introduced earlier, and Marina, another 18-year-old childhood friend of his.

Vincent is classified as a Pokémon Trainer, he likes to train his Pokémon and battle for fun, but he doesn't make battling the main part of his training, which is why he is classified as a Trainer and not a Battler. Battling is definitely his secondary class though. Vincent was known for a prankster, constantly pulling stuff on his two friends (mostly Jimmy).

Same as Vincent, Jimmy is mainly a trainer and likes to battle for fun, but doesn't take it seriously. Jimmy, Vincent, and Marina all competed in the Silver Conference years ago when they tried to take battling seriously. Deciding afterwards that battling was not the path they wanted, they pursued different occupations. Unlike Vincent, Jimmy is a little more serious and a natural leader. He still has a decent sense of humor and made jokes that everyone usually finds funny, unlike Vincent.

While Jimmy and Vincent were Trainers, Marina was a coordinator. Pokémon coordinating is a similar competition to battling leagues, but instead of battling, they have their Pokémon perform a series of moves to wow the audience. After the first segment, the remaining coordinators battle each other like in a normal league until there is one person left. Unlike leagues however, there is a points system and a time limit. If your Pokémon get's hit, you lose points. If it dodges, your opponent loses points. Then if you combine two moves together to make an even more powerful move, your opponent loses points.

When it comes to coordinating, Marina is known for being one of the best coordinators of the present day, earning the title of top coordinator 4 years ago. Though, after three years of having that title, Marina stepped down and nobody, not even her two best friends, knew why. Marina herself was a cheerful and lighthearted person under most circumstances. But if you make her mad, then your getting an earful from the bluenette

Now that our cast is mostly introduced, let's get into the morning.

The friends ate their breakfast, devouring it within minutes, then walked outside. It was a beautiful summer day, not too cold, not too warm, it was just right. The three friends have been living at home for the past year training for fun. They all enjoyed each other's company and to make sure they always knew what to do, the friends had made a weekly training schedule. The schedule told them which days to train certain Pokémon of theirs, each having a full team of six representing each day, with Sunday being "The day of rest".

However, today was different, every month there was a day where the threesome went to the other side of New Bark Town to speak with their other friend by the name of Casey. That day was today, since it would be a long walk, Jimmy made sure to pack some food and water.

"It's been awhile since we've seen Casey, what do you suppose she's up to when we aren't with her?" Marina asked her two friends.

"Probably working on her skill in baseball, she really wants to join the Electabuzz baseball Team when she's older, even though they aren't the best in the region." Jimmy answered.

"Well, Casey has been a big fan of the Electabuzz ever since she learned about baseball, it would surprise me more if she wanted to join another Team." Vincent added.

Marina giggled, "Maybe with her on the Team, the Electabuzz won't finish in last place!"

The three friends laughed a little bit and continued to converse among each other until they got to Casey's.

* * *

**30 minutes later...**

The three friends arrived at a small single-story house, which was Casey's home. Jimmy knocked on the door and Casey's mother answered it.

"Oh hello you three, are you looking for Casey?" She said.

"Yes ma'am." Jimmy answered.

"She's in the backyard, practicing with her Electibuzz"

"Thank you." Jimmy said.

Casey's mother closed the door and the trio walked around the side of the house towards the back. In spite of the small house, Casey's backyard was pretty big, while nowhere near as large as a baseball field. Casey is practicing her batting while using her Electibuzz as a pitcher. There is the Electibuzz baseball team, and a Pokémon by that name as well. Electibuzz were Pokémon known for being able to create large amounts of electricity, which made it a deadly opponent in battle if raised correctly. Casey had raised it when it was just an Elekid.

Casey is younger than the rest of our group, being only sixteen, and she has only known them for four years. Due to lacking two extra years of experience her friends have on her, she is weaker at Pokémon battling than them. Casey herself is known for being enthusiastic and sometimes loud, but she is also kind and respectful when she's not full of energy. Casey, like Jimmy and Vincent,is a trainer with battler as her secondary class. She has dark purple hair (Which is natural in the Pokémon world but still uncommon) sporting a baseball cap with a symbol of a lightning bolt on it.

Casey felt their presence and turned to the three friends, her eyes lighting up at the sight of them.

"Hello everybody! Beautiful day huh?"

Marina smiled, "Absolutely, getting some practice done?"

"Yup! Electabuzz has been working on pitching as well. He can now throw 80 mph balls!"

"That's great! How about your other Pokémon?" Marina asked.

"My other Pokémon are unfortunately not suitable for playing baseball, but I have been training quite a bit with all of them! Beedrill has been working on his endurance, which is going quite well."

"Awesome! So how should we start our training today?" Vincent asked.

Jimmy smirked at his friend, "Why don't we have a warm up battle Vincent? That way, we can point out things we should work on today."

"I thought you'd never ask." Vincent replied.

The two boys went to opposite sides of the yard while the girls sat a considerable distance away from them. Marina stood up as the referee for the battle.

"Jimmy, Vincent, use Cloyster and Golduck respectively, it's their turn today." Marina said.

"You got it!" Both of the boys said.

Marina spoke, "This will be a one on one Pokémon battle with no substitutions! Trainers, reveal your Pokémon!"

Jimmy produced a Pokeball and threw it, releasing the creature inside; "Go Cloyster!"

Vincent smirked, "Go Golduck!"

Jimmy's ball revealed a large oyster-looking creature with a face inside of its shell, known as Cloyster. Vincent's revealed a human-sized blue, duck-creature known as Golduck.

"Battle, Begin!" Marina exclaimed.

"Cloyster, start us off with Tri attack!" Jimmy commanded his Pokémon.

The Bivalve Pokémon unleashed a flurry of 3 different colored attacks at the blue duck.

"Golduck, dodge it and retaliate with Psybeam!"

"Dodge it Cloyster!**"**

Golduck nimbly dodged the Tri attack and fired a pink and white beam at Cloyster, who dodged it like Golduck had. Both Pokémon looked at each other with confidence.

"Now Cloyster, use Ice Beam on the ground!"

The Bivalve Pokémon fired a white beam at the ground, creating Ice across the yard. Golduck would now have a tougher time moving around thanks to the ice.

"Use Psybeam again!" Vincent commanded.

"Go under it, then use Poison jab!" Jimmy retaliated.

Golduck found it's balance and fired another beam at the Water/Ice type, but Cloyster levitated under the attack and stabbed Golduck with one of its spikes. The attack hurt Golduck, but it didn't poison it like Jimmy had wanted.

"Grab on to Cloyster and use Brick Break!"

Golduck grabbed onto one of Cloyster's spikes and punched it with Brick Break, the Fighting-type move was super effective against Cloyster, hurting it substantially. However, thanks to it's shell, the attack wasn't too overwhelming for Cloyster to handle.

"Now use Psybeam Golduck!" Vincent commanded.

"Protect!"

Golduck, for the third time, fired the psychic-type move towards the Bivalve Pokémon. But Cloyster formed a green barrier around it and protected itself from the attack."

"Use Tri Attack!" Jimmy told the Water/Ice type.

"Hydro Pump!"

Cloyster fired another volley of three different colored attacks at the Duck Pokémon while Golduck sprayed a huge amount of water from its mouth. The two attacks collided, each attempting to overpower the other. After a few seconds, the Hydro Pump won out and collided with the Bivalve Pokémon, only slightly damaging it due to water-type attacks being not very effective against it, but the damage was still present.

Just then, Golduck slipped on the ice-covered field, giving Jimmy a chance to retaliate, "Use Hyper Beam!"

"Watch out Golduck!"

Cloyster fired a large beam at the Duck Pokémon doing massive damage to it, destroying the ice around it in the process. In spite of this, Golduck managed to stand up without any ice to hinder its movements.

"Nice work Jimmy! But don't get cocky now, use disable!"

Jimmy frowned, Golduck had just disabled Cloyster from using Hyper Beam again for most of the battle.

"Now use Psybeam once more!"

"Dodge it!"

Unfortunately, Jimmy had forgotten that Cloyster has to recover after using a powerful move like Hyper Beam. So Cloyster was unable to move, allowing Golduck to score another hit on Cloyster. Even worse, the attack had confused Cloyster, causing it's hearing and eyesight to be distorted.

"Cloyster! Hide in your shell and try to focus!" Jimmy said.

"Don't let it! Use Brick Break." Vincent countered.

Cloyster hadn't heard Jimmy right and did nothing, causing it to be hit by the Brick Break, hurting it effectively again. Luckily, Cloyster managed to snap out of it's confused state after being hit.

"Now use Tri attack!" Jimmy commanded.

Cloyster fired another flurry of colored beams at Golduck. Each of them hit the Duck Pokémon, paralyzing it.

"Now use Poison Jab!" Jimmy said, hoping to poison the water type.

Cloyster levitated over to Golduck and stabbed it with one of its spikes. The helpless Golduck couldn't do anything stop the attack which caused it to be hit and poisoned.

"_I have to find a way to get rid of Golduck's paralysis, otherwise, he'll be a sitting duck! (Pun intended)" Vincent thought to himself._

"Use Ice Beam!"

Cloyster fired another icy beam at Golduck, which chilled the Duck Pokémon's body. Luckily for Golduck, the paralysis passed soon after.

"Way to pull through! Now use Hydro Pump Golduck!"

"Golduck unleashed a huge sprout of water from it's mouth, pushing the ice beam attack back.

"Switch to Hyper Beam!" Jimmy said, forgetting the move was disabled.

Cloyster attempted to switch to its most powerful move, but failed, causing it to be hit with Hydro Pump.

"Oh no!" Jimmy cried out.

"Now, use disable again!" Vincent ordered.

Golduck used disable again, making it so Ice Beam would now be useless and Jimmy only had two moves he could use unless one of the two disabled moves became usable again. Jimmy mentally kicked himself for forgetting that Cloyster couldn't use Hyper Beam then, he needed a good strategy if he wanted to win.

"Use Brick Break again!" Vincent ordered.

"Protect! Then use Poison Jab!" Jimmy countered.

Golduck rushed towards Cloyster and used Brick Break, but the Bivalve Pokémon formed a green barrier around itself which hurt Golduck's hand, making the Water-type clutch it's hand in pain. Then Cloyster stabbed the Duck Pokémon with one of it's spikes, making it cry out in pain.

"Golduck use Disable once more!"

The more a Pokémon used Disable, the less of the chance there is for it to work. But miraculously, Golduck used Disable again deeming Poison Jab useless. Jimmy knew the chances of him winning would be slim without any damaging moves. but just then, Jimmy's Pokedex beeped. He pulled it out and checked it, Hyper Beam was usable again! And the best part, Vincent didn't know!

"Cloyster, rear your head back and grab Golduck with your shell!"

Cloyster grabbed Golduck with it's shell, holding it in place.

"Big mistake Jimmy! Golduck, use Brick Break!" Vincent commanded

"Hyper Beam!"

Golduck attempted to punch Cloyster's head with Brick Break, but never got the chance as the bivalve Pokémon unleashed a powerful beam, creating a big explosion in the battlefield and kicking up a lot of dust. When it cleared, Cloyster had let go of Golduck and was wobbling in the air, it had been in the vicinity of the explosion, causing it to take damage from the attack as well.

Golduck was breathing heavily, holding on to it's arm, then Golduck winced in pain from being poisoned, then fell to the ground fainted.

"Golduck is unable to battle! That means the victory goes to Jimmy and Cloyster!" Marina announced.

Jimmy walked over to the Bivalve Pokémon and patted it on its shell, "Great Job Cloyster, take a nice long rest." He said returning it to it's Pokeball.

Meanwhile, Vincent had walked over to his fallen Golduck and knelt down next to it, "You fought well, we'll learn from this battle and win next time. You deserve some rest." He said returning the water-type.

The two boys then walked over to each other and shook each other's hands while the girls walked towards them.

"Great battle you two! Golduck and Cloyster really fought well out there." Marina said to them before turning to Jimmy, "And congrats to you and Cloyster for winning."

"Oh it was nothing." Jimmy said.

"None of this humble stuff! Cloyster was a champion out there." Vincent began, "He tanked so many hits from Golduck and still managed to win. That takes some skill!"

"W-well, that's because of its high defense..." Jimmy said attempting to remove himself from the center of attention.

"Yes, and because the two of you make a great team!" Marina said, praising him.

"W-well thanks." Jimmy said, slightly red from embarrassment.

"Ahem." A voice said behind the trio.

The three friends turned around to see a miffed Casey, "Are you going to APOLOGIZE for totaling my backyard?" She said.

The two boys nervously looked at the damage they had caused, they would have a lot of cleaning up to do during the day if they didn't want to face Casey's wrath.

"We're sorry Casey." Jimmy said, "Next time we do a battle somewhere, it won't be in your backyard."

"What he said." Vincent said lazily, earning a light punch from his male friend.

"At least say your sorry." Jimmy whispered to him.

"Alright I'm sorry too." Vincent said reluctantly.

Casey gave Vincent one last glare before responding, "Hmph! Apology accepted."

"Okay boys, what do you think you and your Pokémon could have improved on out there?" Marina said to them.

The two boys thought for a moment, Vincent answering first, "Golduck could have been a little more prepared for some of the attacks, sometimes I just stood there while Golduck was in obvious need of assistance."

"I made a huge mistake by forgetting about Hyper Beam being disabled, it had nearly cost me the battle.

"But it didn't." Vincent said.

"Shut up."

"Well that's what we should work on today! Casey and I have already pinpointed what we want to work on today. I need Xatu to be a little quicker so it can dodge attacks while Casey's Beedrill needs to work on it's endurance like she mentioned earlier." Marina said to them.

"Alright, let's get to work everyone!" Jimmy announced.

For most of the day, the friends trained with their Pokémon, giving each other tips or just conversing. They would occasionally go inside for bathroom and eating breaks. Around 1:00 PM, Vincent managed to get his hands on some water balloons and threw some at his friends, causing them to go and spray him with Casey's hose in retaliation. After the wet afternoon, the group went inside and changed into some dry clothes. (The three older ones always brought dry clothes just in case, they could never know with Vincent's behavior.)

Around 5:00 PM, The group started to bring the day to a close, and the three people who didn't live there started packing things up.

"Today was a good day everyone!" Jimmy said.

Everyone agreed, they had achieved a lot with their Pokémon, learning new skills and overcoming faults.

"Alright Casey, we will see you next month!" Marina said to the purple-haired girl.

"You bet!"

The three friends started to walk away from Casey's house, but they never got the chance as an explosion knocked them all backwards.

* * *

**Trainer Card: Jimmy Schemmel  
**

**Age: 18**

**Hometown: New Bark Town, Johto**

**Birthday: February 25th**

**Height: 5'9**

**Blood type: AB**

**Eye color: Dark blue**

**Hair color: Blueish-grey**

**Trainer class: Pokémon Trainer**

**Secondary class: Pokémon Battler**

**Other Hobbies: Tennis, Swimming, Making fun of Vincent**

**Special conditions: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokémon (On hand)**

**Typhlosion (F)**

**Beedrill (M)**

**Cloyster (M)**

**Nuzleaf (M)**

**Plusle (F)**

**Camerupt (M)**

* * *

**And That's the first chapter! So, did you like it? Did you hate it? (Probably the second one) Please let me know!**

**This is a revised version of the original (cringier) chapter one of this story.**

**The next chapter will fully introduce Team Rocket as villains and establish how strong our protagonists and antagonists are.**

**As for the characters, most of them will reflect their anime personalities, but of course with a few changes to make them more mature.**

**Jimmy- He's a natural leader and known for being charismatic. A lot of people in New Bark Town look up to him as his Pokémon are the strongest there. Jimmy is more tolerant of Vincent and less nervous around Marina (He still likes her though LOL). The missing slots on Jimmy's team were selected by me, and you may notice that he has a lot of Hoenn Pokémon. In my story, he has visited that region. Jimmy no longer says "You rock and you rule!" Mainly because he grew out of it, its just to add a little realism to his character. He's kind to everyone, though, he is sometimes known for making fun of Vincent.**

**Vincent- Has the most changes out of everyone here. Instead of the eccentric fool like we got in the anime, Vincent here is more of a prankster, and likes to make himself and others laugh. He's not a respected individual like Jimmy, but he does have a positive reputation out of people in New Bark Town.**

**Marina- The most complicated character to write would have to be this one, I've removed a lot of defining qualities about this character and replaced them with qualities that would make sense for her age. She doesn't nickname her Pokémon or address people as "Sweetie-Pie" anymore. In here, she's less of a battler, but is still ridiculously strong compared to everyone else in New Bark. She likes giving advice to people and is overall, a very kind individual.**

**Casey- This hotblooded girl is a character I look forward to writing more about! She keeps a lot of her qualities from the anime with only a few minute changes. Casey is not nearly as loud as she was in the anime but she can still make some noise, which others are often annoyed by. Casey is good at heart, but makes rash decisions depending on the situation. She is still passionate about baseball and loves to meet new people and Pokémon.**

**And with that, thank you for reading this chapter!**

* * *

**3/5/2020 - rewrote chapter, mostly removal of unnecessary text.**

**3/26/2020 - Fixed spellings of Pokemon names, mainly "Electabuzz" being spelled as "Electibuzz", and "Cloyster" being spelled as "Closter"**


	2. Chapter 2: First Offense

**Here's Chapter Two!**

**Team Rocket will be introduced in this chapter.**

* * *

**New Bark town, Johto. 12:06 pm Saturday, July 7, Same day as before**

**3****rd**** Person P.O.V.**

The blast blew them all to the ground, temporarily dazing them.

Jimmy regained his senses first and helped his 3 friends up before looking in the direction of the explosion. Professor Elm's lab had been blown up with a group of adults surrounding the wreckage. The group immediately recognized their uniforms, which they never thought they'd see again.

"_I'm glad professor Elm is out of town today." _Jimmy thought to himself_, "He would be in trouble if he wasn't."_

"Team Rocket!" Casey exclaimed.

"What are they doing here? I thought the organization was disbanded years ago." Marina questioned.

"I don't know, but whatever reason they are here, we need to stop them. We are the strongest trainers in New Bark and we have to defend it! Who's with me!" Jimmy stated confidently.

Silence.

Then Vincent spoke, "Jimmy, you need to stop saying things you think make you sound cool. Because they don't make you cool."

Marina sighed, "As much as I hate to admit it, Vincent has a point."

Jimmy looked down in defeat, "But, what about Team Rocket?"

"Let's go kick some Rocket butt!" Casey exclaimed as she dashed towards their foes.

"You're not going to comment about that statement?" Jimmy said.

"Casey is Casey, she can get away with saying that without sounding like a complete idiot, like you." Vincent said, taking off.

"I resent that!" Jimmy yelled, angrily following.

Marina shook her head and ran to catch up with everyone else.

When everyone got there, Casey shouted to them, "HEY!"

All of the grunts cringed and turned around, "Who said that?" One of them said.

"I did!" Casey said boldly.

The leader of them, which was a woman with blond hair walked up to her and gave her a glare, "Do you know who we are kid? We're Team Rocket! An unstoppable organization of evil!"

Casey actually laughed, "That's funny, because everything you just said, was wrong."

"Why I outta…" The woman angrily said, but she was restrained by a male grunt with green hair.

"Get a hold of yourself Cassidy!" He said.

The woman wanted to protest but decided not to in order to prevent herself from looking unprofessional, "Are you trying to provoke us kid?"

Casey was getting tired of being called a child, "I'm not, but we are!"

Cassidy looked past Casey and saw three older people behind her with Pokeballs ready, it seems she had gotten the attention of a some of the local trainers. The Rocket grunt wasn't afraid though, in fact, she was rather amused.

"YOU think you can stop us?" She laughed., before continuing, "We aren't weak like we used to be, so do yourself a favor and get lost!"

"Then prove it to us!" Casey said arrogantly.

Having had enough nonsense for the day, Cassidy ordered the rest of her squadron, "Biff! Help me out with this brat right here!" She said pointing at Casey. "And the rest of you, attack the other ones!" She commanded the other grunts.

"It's Butch not Biff!" The green haired man yelled angrily.

Casey raised up the Pokeballs and called out, "Electibuzz! Beedrill! Let's show these thugs what we're made of!"

Cassidy and Butch smirked at her, "Go Houndoom!" Cassidy called out. "Go Mightyena!" Butch released his Pokémon.

Casey began to battle Cassidy and Butch while everyone else battled the grunts.

"Beedrill, X-scissor on Houndoom, and Electibuzz, thunderbolt on Mightyena.

Each of the Pokémon released their respected attacks on the opposing Pokémon.

The Rocket duo smirked, "Mightyena, dodge that thunderbolt and use bite on Electibuzz!"

"Houndoom! Flamethrower to counter!"

The two Pokémon working for Team Rocket did as their trainers told them to. Mightyena rushed towards Electibuzz with bite and Houndoom fired a flamethrower at the X-scissor. The flamethrower overpowered the X-scissor and hit Beedrill dead on, causing heavy damage.

"Electibuzz, sidestep Mightyena and use thunder punch! Beedrill, shake it off and use agility followed by fury attack!"

Electibuzz smirked and dodged Mightyena's bite and hit it with thunder punch, knocking it a few meters away. Beedrill used agility to increase its speed and flew towards Houndoom at lightning speed, preparing fury attack.

Butch knew he had to help out his companion "Mightyena, get up and use quick attack paired with Iron tail on Beedrill!"

Beedrill launched fury attack on Houndoom, but Mightyena quickly ran towards the two with Iron tail prepared.

Casey already had a plan in mind, "Let it get close Beedrill!"

The Rocket duo looked confused at Casey's odd choice of a command, but kept their composure

"Keep it coming Mightyena!"

Mightyena raced towards Beedrill, as he was getting close, Casey shouted out a command.

"Now dodge that iron tail!"

Beedrill swiftly moved out of Mightyena's way, causing iron tail to hit Houndoom instead.

"Now, Electibuzz, use thunderbolt on them both!"

Electibuzz fired a thunderbolt at the two dog-like Pokémon. They got hit, taking a lot of damage.

The Rocket members grinded their teeth in frustration, this girl was better at battling than they originally thought she was.

"Seems your stronger than we thought, but Team Rocket won't fail, Houndoom, use Dark Pulse on Electibuzz!" Cassidy commanded to the fire/dark type.

"Mightyena, use take down on Beedrill!"

The dark pulse shot its way towards Electibuzz at incredible speed, before Casey could shout a command, the Dark type move hit Electibuzz, and Mightyena hit Beedrill with take down, causing Beedrill to faint. But Mightyena was also close to fainting due to having taken recoil damage.

Casey looked at Beedrill with saddened eyes, "Beedrill, you fought well out there, take a good rest."

Casey looked at her opponents and thought to herself, "_Okay, __Beedrill__ is knocked out and __Mightyena__ looks about ready to pass out, but __Houndoom__ is still in good condition. I might have to use this move somebody taught to __Electibuzz__, but he's always had trouble using it, so there's a risk, but right now, I'm going to need to take risks."_

Casey took a deep breath before continuing the battle, "Alright Electibuzz, use thunder punch on Mightyena!"

Electibuzz generated electricity in its fists and rushed towards the Bite Pokémon. Butch smirked before commanding Mightyena, "Dodge it!"

Mightyena swiftly moved out of the way, and turned towards the electric type.

"Mightyena, use bite now!"

"Houndoom, use flame charge to back him up!"

The two Pokémon rushed towards the Electric Pokémon with their respective attacks, which was what Casey had planned from the beginning.

_Okay, it's now or never_. "Electibuzz, turn around and shoot out an ELECTROWEB!"

Cassidy and Butch were surprised to hear this, as the only known Pokémon who could learn electroweb without the aid of a tutor is Gavantula.

Electibuzz turned to face his opponents and focused his electricity in the way he was taught to, and then released it on the two dog-like Pokémon. The electric energy spread out into a web like pattern and it trapped the dog duo while damaging them. In spite of this however, both Pokémon were trapped, but still standing.

Casey knew this was her chance to end this. "Electibuzz, use thunderbolt on the web!"

Electibuzz fired a thunderbolt at the trapped Pokémon which caused an explosion due to the high concentration of electrical energy. When the dust cleared, both of the villains' Pokémon were unconscious, while Electibuzz was still standing.

"You did it Electibuzz!" Casey praised at her loyal friend.

Electibuzz gave her a thumbs up as she returned it to its Pokeball.

Cassidy and Butch were furious that they had lost, "Grunts! Attack the girl!" Cassidy commanded.

One of the grunts came up to her, "I regret to inform you ma'am, but all of our Pokémon are down. We have to fall back."

Cassidy looked like she was about to blow, but instead collected herself and commanded her squadron, "We have to retreat! Back to base everybody." She said as her squad took off into the woods.

Before she left, Cassidy gave the younger girl one last glare, "I won't forget this." And with that, she left.

Casey ignored the woman and turned to her three friends.

"Well, That takes care of them." Marina stated the obvious

"Did you get any information on what they wanted?" Jimmy asked the younger girl.

"Nope, they didn't say anything. How did battling the grunts go?" Casey answered.

"Oddly, they were actually a lot tougher than I remember them to be." Vincent answered.

"I know right? You'd think that they'd be a walk in the park after all of the training we've done over the years. However, it seems that we aren't the only ones who have been training hard." Jimmy said.

Marina then realized something, "Guys, we've all participated in the Pokémon league except for Casey, which being able to enter by itself is a tough task. If Team Rocket grunts can give us a challenge, then, there's no telling how strong the higher ranking operatives are.

Casey shuddered at the thought, "You're right, I can't bear the thought of them wrecking havoc across the region, or possibly..." She said as she gulped, "...the World."

Silence hung in the air after that remark.

Jimmy was the one to break the silence, "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we should at least attempt to defeat Team Rocket. I know that there are other trainers out there that are stronger than us, but we should try to contribute to the effort. Once Team Rocket becomes a regional problem, the police and the Pokémon league will need as many people as they can get to help fight them. We can go around the region and recruit people who wish to join us and take out Team Rocket if we run into them. Who's with me?"

Vincent smiled, "Y'know, that was a lot better."

"What?" Jimmy asked.

"You just made an announcement without sounding too cringy, that's progress." Vincent answered.

Marina rolled her eyes, "Vincent's trying to say that he'll join you without actually saying it."

Jimmy nodded, understanding, "What about you two?" He asked the two girls.

"I think this is a good opportunity to meet more people, and for training as well. I'll definitely go!" Marina said.

"I agree with Marina, we'll get to meet more people and Pokémon!" Casey said enthusiastically.

"Then it's settled, we'll get packed today, take a break tomorrow since its Sunday and leave on Monday." Jimmy said, taking the leadership role.

Everyone agreed and left for their homes, and started to pack. Little did they know, this journey would change their lives forever.

* * *

**Alto Mare, Johto region, the day after. Sunday, July 8th**

Our scene is set in front of a church-looking building, then three figures stepped out of it, two 18-year old girls who look exactly alike, and a short, rotund man that was in his late 70s. They had just exited a church-like building, more on that later.

"So what did you two do today?" The man asked.

"I taught my class about _Spiritual Gifts_." One of the girls answered.

"Ah, that's a great lesson Bianca." He said turning to the other girl, "I'm assuming you assisted her in teaching Latina?"

The other girl nodded.

The supposed family arrived home and the two girls changed out of their nice attire into regular clothes.

"I have to be somewhere in town today. I hate working on Sundays but my job is demanding. You girls okay with fending for yourselves tonight?"

"Sure Grandpa Lorenzo." Bianca answered.

"I'll see you two later tonight. And please, don't burn the house down." Lorenzo said to them.

The two girls nodded.

"I'll see you later." Lorenzo said, taking off.

The two girls got out Chess and started playing with one another.

As they were playing, Latina felt a sharp pain in her head, causing her to clutch it in in pain.

Worried for her "twin sister", Bianca gave Latina a look of concern, "You okay?"

Latina nodded as the pain subsided, "_That only happens when Suicune and the other Legendary Beasts need me in Johto." _she thought to herself_._

Lost in her thoughts, Latina didn't notice Bianca waving her hand in front of her face, "Are you sure nothing's wrong Latina?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Latina nodded her head affirmative.

Bianca, still unsure, gave Latina a worrying gaze, "Well, if you ever have any problems, come talk to me. I'll understand."

Latina nodded her head, grateful for Bianca's gift of understanding as they continued their game of Chess.

* * *

**Trainer Card: Casey Williams**

**Age: 16**

**Hometown: New Bark Town, Johto**

**Birthday: November 2nd**

**Height: 5'3**

**Blood type: B**

**Eye color: Brown**

**Hair color: Purple**

**Trainer class: Pokémon Trainer**

**Secondary class: Pokémon Battler**

**Other Hobbies: Baseball, Exploring, Making people want to claw their eardrums out**

**Notable achievements: n/a**

**Special Conditions: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokémon (On hand)**

**Meganium (F)**

**Beedrill (M)**

**Electibuzz (M)**

**Sandslash (M)**

**Helioptile (F)**

**n/a**

* * *

**That's the end of chapter two! Things were definitely cranked up in this chapter.**

**I'll see you in chapter 3!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Other Side

**Welcome back to chapter 3! Are you excited? I'm excited!**

**Jeez I sound so cringy lol.**

**So, for this chapter, we will be taking the spotlight off of Jimmy and the others, and the other character at the end of the last chapter won't be in this chapter either.**

**Be sure to review :^)**

**Monday, 7:03 in Blackthorn city**

* * *

"They said they would meet me here, yet I'm the first one here." A man in a white lab coat mused to himself.

The man had been on a video call with two boys that might have been interested in getting a starter Pokémon from the professor, although one already had Pokémon, he never had much opportunity to travel around, and because of the recent Team Rocket scandals, the boys wanted to help out people who were affected by their cruelty, which is something the man admires about them. In spite of them being friends, there was quite a gap in their age, with one being only 16 and the other being 19.

Another 5 minutes passed and the man was getting impatient, "Where_ are _they?" he asked to no one in particular.

Then he heard a male voice behind him, "Professor Elm!"

The professor turned around and saw two boys. One was a short boy with brown hair, he was wearing a red striped shirt and blue shorts. He also had a camera in his right hand. The other boy, who was noticeably taller and older, was wearing black pants, a black shirt, and a grey vest, he had auburn hair. Their names were Todd Snap and Rudy, respectively.

Professor Elm looked at the two boys with an annoyed expression on his face, "Todd, Rudy, you really need to keep track of time here. you're almost 10 minutes late!"

"We would have been here earlier, but SOMEONE, took to long admiring his looks." Todd said glaring at Rudy.

Rudy smiled sheepishly, "Come on Todd, it's not THAT big of a deal."

"Tell that to the professor"

"…"

Professor Elm got between the two of them, "Now, now boys, it's not the time to argue, especially you Todd since you are getting your first Pokémon."

"Sorry professor." Todd apologized

"It's fine." the professor told him.

The two boys followed the professor to a small building he would sometimes conduct research in, he wasn't normally at this place in particular in comparison to his lab in New Bark Town so the place was kind of musty inside. Professor Elm the brought three Pokeballs out of a container and opened them, revealing a Cyndaquil, Chikorita, and a Totodile.

"Alright Todd, these are the three Pokémon you may choose from, and before I forget, I'll give you your Pokedex so that you can scan them.

Professor Elm handed him a red colored device and Todd opened it up. The brown-haired boy held it up in front of Cyndaquil.

_"Cyndaquil, the Fire Mouse Pokémon, a fire type. It usually stays hunched over. If it is angry or surprised, it shoots flames out of its back."_

Todd then held the device in front of Chikorita.

"_Chikorita, the Leaf Pokémon, a grass type. Its pleasantly aromatic leaf has the ability to check humidity and temperature."_

Finally, he scanned Totodile.

_"Totodile, the Big Jaw Pokémon, a water type. It is small but rough and tough. It won't hesitate to take a bite out of anything that moves."_

Todd noticed a camera icon on the top left corner of the Pokedex, his eyes lighting up when he saw it. Todd liked taking pictures of Pokémon, so it would definitely help due to a Pokedex being able to fit in his pocket while he had to carry an actual camera. After quickly snapping a picture of each starter, he walked over to the Big Jaw Pokémon.

"I'll go with Totodile professor." Todd stated.

"A fine choice young man, I'm sure the two will get along just fine."

Todd then turned his attention to the water-type, "What do you say Totodile? Do you want to be my first Pokémon?"

Totodile took a moment to examine the boy before happily jumping into his arms.

"Totodile!" It exclaimed.

"Haha, I suppose that's a yes then." Todd said, slightly surprised by the sudden affection he was getting.

Professor Elm handed Totodile's Pokeball and 5 empty Pokeballs to the brunette boy: "Glad to see you two are getting along, here are your other Pokeballs so that you can catch Pokémon in the wild."

"Thank you professor."

The man then turned to the older boy, "I'm assuming that you will be teaching Todd here about being a trainer right Rudy?"

"Absolutely."

"Is there any particular reason why you've chosen him, I'm sure other trainers would have loved for you to tutor them, considering your battling skill." The professor asked.

"Todd's been my friend for a while, I feel like the both of us would have a better experience since we know each other. I don't want to tutor someone I don't know." Rudy explained.

"That's understandable. I wish you two good luck!" The professor said to them.

The boys said their goodbyes to the professor and started to walk off towards route 44. Rudy had taught Todd about being a trainer weeks ago, but just to make sure he didn't forget any of it, Rudy summarized his previous lessons to him again. He and Todd did a few training sessions to help Totodile improve its battling skill with Rudy's Pokémon using attacks for the water-type to dodge. When their training was finished, a few beginner trainers challenged Todd to battle them.

Todd told Rudy not to help him out during any of his battles so that he could put the skills he learned to the test. The sixteen year-old managed to win most of the battles, but still lost to trainers with more experience. Todd never let any loss deter him however, and he took all of his losses as a learning experience so that he could improve his skill.

Todd and Rudy would talk to one another in between battles. Most of the time they were talking about battling and memes; but eventually, Todd brought up Rudy's gym in their conversations.

"Hey Rudy? Who is going to run your gym while your training me?" Todd asked the older boy.

"Mahri's in charge right now." Rudy answered

"Ah okay."

Mahri is Rudy's little sister by about three years, she is only a month younger than Todd is. Todd met her not long after he first met her older brother. She has aurburn hair like her brother, and deep blue eyes. She could often be described as kind, caring, and sometimes reckless; she would put her own life in danger if it meant someone got to live another day, which is something that Todd always admired. Since they were in the same age group, Rudy would always tease them about liking each other more than just friends, which both of them would quickly deny, but they both knew that Rudy was just teasing them.

Along with being a good person in general, she could also be a formidable foe in a Pokémon battle. Though, she was no where near the strength of her brother, who very few people have managed to defeat in his current state.

"Do you think she is capable of running it?" Todd asked.

"I wouldn't have put her in charge if she wasn't. Why do you ask? Don't you idolize her or something?" Rudy answered.

Todd's face turned bright pink for half a second, then it went away; "Dude, how many times do I have to tell you? I DON'T LIKE HER IN THAT WAY!"

"Sure, just keep telling yourself that." Rudy said, engaging his smart aleck attitude.

Todd was about to yell again, but he restrained himself. Rudy was just messing around, getting angry would be giving him what he wanted.

Ignoring the previous conversation they just had, Rudy asked his younger friend; "How are you liking your first day as a trainer?"

Todd thought back to how the day went: he had got to know his new Pokémon friend, battled trainers, and more. He truly enjoyed the day, and if everyday was going to like this one, then he was glad that he decided to become a trainer; "Today was awesome! I had a lot of fun!"

Rudy smiled at the younger boy, "Glad to hear that I'm not failing as a mentor."

"You definitely aren't, your advice has been super helpful! I'm glad you decided to tutor me" Todd said.

Rudy smiled to Todd again then the younger boy turned to another direction, possibly another trainer wanting to battle him. Rudy collected his thoughts together and frowned to himself; He wished that what Todd had told him was true, but he was actually told that a dangerous threat was in the Johto region and he was sent to eradicate it along with other Pokémon league members. He didn't know how to break the truth to Todd that training him was just a cover story so that nobody would get suspicious. Frankly, Rudy wasn't lying to Todd though, he was tutoring him but without the knowledge that Rudy came to the region with more important goals in mind.

"Hey Rudy I won another battle!" Todd called out.

Rudy snapped away from his thoughts, was he really thinking for that long?

"Uhm, great job Todd! I'll be right there!"

"_I guess until I discover what this threat is, I can have fun with my friend."_ Rudy thought to himself.

The two boys continued their journey for the rest of the day before setting up camp and sleeping the night away.

* * *

**Trainer Card: Todd**

**Age: 16**

**Hometown: Saffron city, Kanto**

**Birthday: April 29th**

**Height: 5'4**

**Blood type: O**

**Eye color: Brown**

**Hair color: Brown**

**Trainer class: Pokémon Trainer**

**Secondary class: Undecided**

**Other hobbies: Photography, Jogging, Constantly asking people for opinions on the pictures he took.**

**Notable achievements: n/a**

**Special conditions: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokémon (On hand)**

**-Totodile(F)**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

**Hey that's the third chapter! Told you it was going to be shorter haha.**

**In the next chapter, we will look at our old group again and they will gain two new companions!**

**Make sure to ask any questions that wouldn't spoil the story too much.**

**Here's some info on the new characters:**

**Todd- Todd is a rather cautious and second-guesses himself on a lot of things, he is passionate about photography and has been doing it most of his life. He only decided to become a Pokémon trainer just now because it never crossed his mind before. In this chapter, he's more confident about Pokémon battling than he is with a lot of other things.**

**Rudy- A GIGANTIC change from the anime, he is a respectful individual and is very knowledgeable. Rudy also knows more than he's letting on, guess we'll find out in the future.**

**See y'all in the next chapter!"**


	4. Chapter 4: Megalophobia

**Chapter Four! I'm really enjoying making this story!**

**Okay, so we'll see two new protagonists in this chapter, and one of them will be one of the three MAIN characters.**

**What I mean by that is that there'll be a lot of characters in this story, but three of them will receive the most development and page time.**

**None of the past characters are one of the MAIN characters, so far at least.**

**Enjoy chapter 4!**

**Oh yeah, I don't own Pokémon.**

**Tuesday, July 10th, 7:06 AM on Route One with Jimmy and Vincent still sleeping.**

* * *

Having taken the day off on Sunday, the friends set out on Monday. They trained their Pokémon, chatted, and discussed their plans for Team Rocket. They tried convincing other people to join their group, but they were unsuccessful.

They occasionally let their Pokémon out to socialize with one another, which would always end abrubtly because Vincent's Pinsir would get mad over something and it would try to attack everyone else causing Vincent to return it. Then all of the other Pokémon would get salty and lose their own cool. The group really needed to work on their Pokémon's attitudes.

The four friends pitched up two tents that night with Jimmy and Vincent in one and the two girls in the other. Morning came quickly and Marina was the first person up, not wanting to wake up Casey, she went outside and started making breakfast. Everyone with the exception of Vincent had sufficient cooking skills, but Marina's was regarded as "the best" so she had been picked to cook for a majority of the time. She didn't mind though, it meant that if someone mistreated her, she could just exclude them from a meal.

Casey awoke around 15 minutes after Marina and steeped outside to greet her older friend; "What 'cha makin'?"

Marina turned to the direction of Casey, "Good Morning Casey, I hope you slept well. I'm making eggs and bacon for breakfast."

"Sounds delicious, do you need any help with anything?" Casey asked.

"Nope, I've got it covered. If you want, you can practice pitching with Electibuzz."

"I think I'll go ahead and do that. Tell me when the boys wake up." Casey said.

"You mean IF the boys wake up." Marina corrected her.

"Ah, right."

Jimmy and Vincent had trouble getting up in the morning. It wasn't because of any special reason, they just liked their sleep like all teens do. After a half an hour, Marina finished making pancakes and Casey was able to slightly increase her pitching accuracy for baseball with the help of her faithful electric type. At this time, the boys still weren't up and it was 7:55 AM. Some people like to sleep in later, but they were on a mission right now, no time for slacking.

"How long does it take for those two to wake up in the morning, this is getting ridiculous." Casey said to Marina, clearly annoyed.

Marina looked at the boys' tent and had the look of exasperation on her face; "I know right? I take forever fixing my looks in the morning, and when I'm done with that, they STILL aren't awake! I have to go wake them every morning because their parents can never wake them up."

"How do you manage to wake them up though?" Casey asked the former top coordinator.

"I try harder than their parents do." Marina answered her sixteen-year-old friend.

Casey looked at the boys tent and smirked as if she had just come up with an evil idea; "What do you say we wake them up manually?"

"How do you figure?"

Casey grabbed two pillows from their tent and gave Marina a knowing look. Understanding Casey's proposal, Marina walked up to the boys tent and opened the zipper. After they peeked inside to find the two boys still sleeping soundly, they both nodded to each other and prepared to throw their pillows and the duo.

"WAKE-UP-CALL!" They yelled as they threw their pillows at the two males, both woke up instantly and turned to the girls, giving them the evil eye.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Vincent yelled at them at the top of his lungs.

"Check your watch Vincent." Casey responded slyly.

Vincent grabbed his watch that he took off when he went to bed the previous night, it read 8:03 AM. What was initially anger quickly turned into panic. He informed Jimmy on the situation and politely asked the girls to leave the tent so that the boys could get dressed. As they were getting dressed, the girls were laughing hysterically outside.

"That reaction was priceless! I wish I could have recorded that!" Casey said.

Marina smiled evilly at her friend, "Don't worry, because I did."

"Ooooh, entertainment!"

The two girls must've watched the replay of their prank at least a thousand times, the reaction created by the two males during the prank never got old, as they giggled every time the video finished playing.

"This" Casey began, as she laughed before finishing. "Is worth paying for."

"Amen to that." Marina agreed with the electric type enthusiast.

Jimmy and Vincent were already dressed and ready to go and the girls were still replaying the video, giggling every time. The two boys shook their heads at the two girls questioning their existence.

Vincent, being the jokester, decided to ask Jimmy an embarrassing question so he could gain some amusement himself; "So Jimmy, remind me why you like Marina again?

Jimmy's face turned bright red, Vincent just had to mention that of all times, but he regained his composure and gave his male friend a somewhat vague answer, "Sometimes, I don't even know myself."

Vincent nodded showing he understood before yelling out to the girls with obvious sarcasm in his voice, "Hey, if you are done giggling at what failures we are, I think it's time we eat breakfast!"

Marina put away her recording device and set the table for everyone, the boys weren't in the mood to socialize as the two girls were still discussing the misfortune of their male companions. After everyone was finished, they thanked Marina for the food and started packing up their items.

The friends finished packing and started walking on the trail to Cherrygrove city. As they were talking whatnot to eachother, when they heard two voices arguing with each other off to the side. The voices seemed to be coming from the woods. Curious, the group walked towards the voices and say a brunette girl in a red and white outfit arguing with a green haired boy with glasses on.

The girl yelled angrily at her companion, "You said you knew which direction to go and look what happened!"

The boy responded just as angrily, "You kept on chasing off a wild Pokémon you wanted to catch so _that's_ why we're lost!"

"You have some nerve for blaming me!" The brunette spat at him.

"The same can be said for you!" He fired back.

The group hadn't been noticed yet as the duo were too busy arguing with each other, so they decided amongst themselves who would go over and break apart the argument.

"So, who's going to break the argument?" Casey asked

Nobody spoke for a while, then Jimmy reluctantly raised his hand, "I volunteer as tribute."

Jimmy then carefully walked towards the arguing duo and spoke, "Ahem."

When the duo didn't notice him, he cleared his throat again, this time much louder, "AHEM!"

The boy and the girl turned to Jimmy and both gave him angry glares for interrupting their argument. Jimmy backed away slowly in fear, "_Shoot, their glaring at me! Abort Jimmy! Abort!" _He thought to himself as he separated himself from the duo.

He turned around to walk away but then a felt someone grab his arm. He turned around and saw the girl doing so, "Sorry about that, were you trying to break up our argument?" She asked him.

Jimmy smiled at her, "Well yeah, arguing never solves anything does it?"

She smiled at him, "That's sweet of you, and no, arguing never solves anything. Right Khoury?"

The boy, now identified as Khoury smiled in response, "Your right Lyra, arguing only leads us farther from the solution." He then walked up to his female companion, "I'm sorry for arguing with you, could you forgive me?"

The girl, now revealed to be named Lyra spoke to her best friend, "Sure, but can I get a hug first?"

Khoury would have rolled his eyes, but he didn't because he knew that Lyra was a person that could be classified as "huggy", therefore, he smiled at her instead, "Of course Lyra."

The two then hugged it out before turning back to Jimmy, "Thanks for breaking up our argument, if you didn't do that, well, a lot of bad stuff could've happened."

Jimmy smiled at them "No prob, but how about I introduce myself, I'm Jimmy from New Bark Town."

Lyra suddenly got excited, "I'm from New Bark Town as well! My name is Lyra, I'm 17 years old!"

Khoury then introduced himself to Jimmy, "My name is Khoury, Lyra's best friend, I'm also 17."

Jimmy was about to say something, but then he felt a tap on his right shoulder. He whirled around to find the three musketeers- I mean his three friends standing in front of him.

"So, are you going to introduce us to your new friends Jimmy?" Casey asked.

Jimmy laughed lamely, "Oh yeah, haha, sorry about that. Everyone, meet Lyra and Khoury."

Jimmy's friends then introduced themselves to Lyra and Khoury. The duo was happy to meet new people.

"It's so nice to meet you all! I don't want to come off as rude but why are you out here in the forest? Unless you are new trainers, shouldn't you be using flying Pokémon to travel the region?" Lyra asked.

Jimmy answered, "That's not offensive, I would be wondering that myself if I were you. The truth is, we are on a mission that requires us to travel on foot."

"If it's not too personal, what kind of mission?" Khoury asked.

"Well, New Bark Town was attacked by Team Rocket two days ago." Vincent said in a serious voice, which was completely unlike him.

The two teens took a few seconds to process the information before answering; "WHAT?!" They exclaimed simultaneously.

"Fortunately, only one building was damaged. Unfortunately, it was Professor Elm's laboratory." Jimmy said.

The two best friends calmed down when they heard that, at least the entire town wasn't in ruins; "Good, because we both live there." Lyra said.

"You're from New Bark?" Marina asked.

"Yep! But we kind of live in a remote location there, so that may explain why you haven't met us yet." Lyra answered the older girl.

"Ah, I see." Marina said, satisfied with the answer.

"So as I was saying, New Bark Town was attacked recently, and we felt that it won't be Team Rocket's last attack. We are travelling the region again in order to find any leads to them, recruit more people, and hopefully take them down." Jimmy said before continuing, "I don't know what Team Rocket has to gain from attacking our small town, but we aren't going to find out if we just sit here."

Lyra and Khoury both nodded, both of them were quite impressed by the foursome's bravery. It reminded them of a friend that they met while they were visiting the Sinnoh region, but that's a story for another day.

"So, what about you two? You also seem to be a little old to be traveling the region by foot." Casey asked.

Lyra answered, "Well, we both have only been trainers for 2 years instead of 7 like you may think. Plus, me and Khoury are a little slower when it comes to training Pokémon. The two of us are traveling the region for different reasons; I'm trying to get all of the gym badges so that I can compete in the Silver Conference this year while Khoury wants to learn everything he can about Pokémon so that he can become a researcher."

The group looked at Khoury for more information; "She pretty much summed it up, I don't have anything else to add."

The group nodded their heads, understanding. Everyone in the group with the exception of Casey had competed in the Silver Conference before, and if they used one word to describe it would be... difficult...

Something was bothering Jimmy though, if Lyra and Khoury were from New Bark like they had said, and they were trainers for at least two years, wouldn't they be in another city and not right outside their start position

With this in mind, Jimmy decided to ask another question, "So Lyra, how many badges do you have?"

Lyra answered his question, "I have five!"

Jimmy smiled at her but then became confused, "But if you have five badges and you're from New Bark Town, shouldn't you at least be in Cianwood city?"

Lyra's cheerful expression instantly disappeared, Jimmy knew that he had overstepped a boundary. "Oh, I'm sorry I asked." He said trying to make up his mistake.

Lyra smiled at him, "It's okay Jimmy, you didn't know, besides, it wasn't that bad."

"You going to be alright Lyra?" Khoury asked, clearly worried.

"I'll be fine Khoury, thanks for looking out for me." Lyra told her best friend before turning to the rest of the group, "I hate keeping people in the dark, so I'll tell you what happened."

* * *

**Flashback, 11 years ago.**

_When Lyra was born she was like most other young kids, full of energy. She was relatively happy throughout most of her life until one day, she was playing with her friends and she strayed into the woods. She had gotten lost, unable to retrace her steps. Eventually, she collapsed to the ground and stayed in place, hoping that someone would find her._

_Then she noticed one of the trees move a little bit, curious, the girl walked up to it to see that the tree had a face, it was a Sudowoodo, known as the Imitation Pokémon. Being about seven feet tall, the Sudowoodo looked down at the lost young girl in front of it. Being a generally friendly Pokémon, Sudowoodo extended its arm- err branch to the Lyra, Sudowoodo knew the woods quite well so it was certain that it could find the girl's home._

_If only Lyra had seen it that way._

_Lyra had interacted with Pokémon before, and she was quite fond of them as well, but she had never encountered one so large before, she didn't even think they could get that large. When Sudowoodo held out its branch to her, she froze up in fear, unable to do anything. She wanted to run or call for help, but she just stood there shivering. Eventually, the fear was too much for the poor girl's mind and she slipped into unconsciousness and almost fell to the ground._

_ The Sudowoodo panicked and quickly caught her before the fall could possibly hurt her. Then it scooped her up and ran as fast as it could to New Bark Town in order to find a nurse of some kind. The Imitation Pokémon found an adult, who took the unconscious girl back to her parents. Two hours later, Lyra woke up a little shaken up, but perfectly healthy, nobody knew what to make of the situation._

_From there, things only got worse, whenever Lyra saw a Pokémon she deemed to be "too big", she would shiver uncontrollably and completely shut down. Eventually, adults were able to figure out that large Pokémon were causing her mental breakdowns.  
_

_A month later, Lyra was diagnosed with Megalophobia, the fear of large objects, or in Lyra's case, large Pokémon. _

_Her family and friends tried their best to support her, but her phobia showed no signs of subsiding. Eventually, all of her friends except for Khoury left to go on their own Pokémon journey. Lyra wanted to go on a Pokémon journey too, but she was too afraid that she would encounter something that would trigger her phobia, and she didn't want that to happen if nobody was around. Khoury didn't want to go on a Pokémon journey for two reasons: One, he wanted to learn all he could about the world of Pokémon before he left so that he would be going in with knowledge on his side, and also because he wanted to continue to support Lyra. _

_Lyra never had any resentment towards her other friends who left on their journeys, in fact, most of them wanted to stay back to support their friend, but Lyra told them that she'd be fine and that they should go on their journeys anyway. Reluctantly, they all left the town for their travels, making sure to call often. Around five years later, Khoury finished his studying and he was ready to go on his own Pokémon journey, but he didn't want to leave Lyra so he asked her if he wanted to accompany him on his journey. Lyra had matured over the years and her phobia was a little less severe, but it would still cause problems if it activated again. Lyra knew that if she had a spasm from her phobia, then Khoury could get her to a Pokémon center to get better._

_The duo then got their starter Pokémon from professor Birch with Khoury getting a Totodile and Lyra getting a Chikorita. Lyra was determined to achieve her dream: Becoming Johto's next Champion, and she wasn't going to let her phobia get in the way of that_

_That changed when Lyra eventually challenged Jasmine for her sixth gym badge_

_Lyra always went into gym battles not knowing what Pokémon her opponent would use. Sure, she knew what type of Pokémon they would use but she didn't know which Pokémon specifically the gym leaders would use._

_This proved to be one of Lyra's biggest mistakes._

_Lyra didn't think that Pokémon could grow above ten feet tall, which is scary enough on its own but it was no where near as tall as they could actually be, and when Jasmine sent out her 30-foot tall Steelix, everything went downhill. Lyra stared at the massive beast with one expression on her face: fear. The girl couldn't move, she was completely illiterate. Then the shaking started, and Lyra's vision began to spin, which would have caused her to collapse on the ground if Khoury didn't catch her in time. Jasmine, understanding the severity of the situation returned Steelix to its Pokeball and ran over to help Khoury. Lyra's best friend explained Lyra's Megalophobia to Jasmine, which made the gym leader feel awful._

_Lyra eventually woke up with Jasmine and Khoury at her hospital bed. Jasmine tried to apologize for sending out Steelix on her, but Lyra interjected and said it was her fault instead for not explaining her condition to her. Lyra couldn't get out of the mindset that the entire dilemma was caused by her carelessness towards her phobia. After Lyra got out of the hospital, she said she wanted to go back to New Bark to rethink her life. Khoury didn't want their journey to end, but he knew that this was what was best for Lyra, this was for her sake._

_No matter how hard she tried, Lyra was too afraid to finish up her journey._

* * *

**Back to the present**

Silence filled the air as Lyra finished her story, the group all felt very sorry for Lyra. She loved battling and wanted to become the strongest trainer Johto has ever seen, but her phobia just wouldn't allow that.

Marina broke the silence; "I'm so sorry to hear that Lyra, it must be terrible having to live with that."

"I guess so, but I still have a question." Casey said.

"Ask away." Khoury said.

"If you were staying in New Bark Town all this time, then why are you out here now?"

Khoury nodded at the reasonable question, "Every once in a while, Lyra wants to go out and try to get back on her feet again, but it unfortunately has never worked."

"Okay, well it was great to meet you guys, I hope we get to meet again!" Marina said towards the duo.

Khoury smiled at the group, "Yeah, for sure. C'mon Lyra, let's go back."

But Lyra didn't move, she had been deep in thought as soon as Vincent mentioned Team Rocket. She had run into the villainous group when she and Khoury were visiting the Sinnoh region. The two had met Ash, Dawn, and Brock in the Sinnoh region and found out that a band of three villains wouldn't stop harassing them. When Lyra and her green-haired friend flew back to Johto, Khoury did some research and discovered that the villains were a part of Team Rocket, an incredibly large organization that uses Pokémon as tools to complete their evil motives. The thought of this made her angry, there was no way that she was going to let the four friends take on Team Rocket alone, she HAD to help.

Then she remembered her condition, Team Rocket definitely had some large Pokémon on their side, so she would just be a burden to the group. She couldn't have her phobia cost the group their mission, but she didn't want to be on the sidelines and watch everyone else do all the hard work. After a few seconds of internal conflict, she made up her mind.

"Wait a minute." She began.

All of the attention turned to her, it was the kind of attention you get when you do something heroic and the public keeps chanting "Speech! Speech!".

Lyra, then spoke with determination, something she hadn't done for a long time; "I want to come with you guys, me and Khoury have met Team Rocket before when we travelled to the Sinnoh region. I know that I'm not the fit for the job mentally, but my phobia isn't going to go away if I don't do anything. You might not want someone like me on your team, but I want to make my presence known."

Her words shocked everyone, Khoury then turned to her, "Lyra, are you sure about this."

Lyra's tone was serious, "Positive."

Jimmy then spoke, "Well, to be fair, you can't get in so easily. There's an entrance exam."

"Entrance exam?" Lyra asked.

"You have to battle one of us." Jimmy answered.

"Ah." Lyra said.

Lyra became a little discouraged after hearing that, she could tell that Jimmy and his friends were no ordinary trainers. They had years of experience, so she felt like it was impossible to win. Despite this, Lyra still wanted to take the "exam".

"Alright, I'll take your test." Lyra said.

"Excellent, but before that..." Vincent began before turning to Khoury, "You want in too fam?"

A smirk started to form on Khoury's face, which was pretty rare coming from him, "Heh, the only reason I didn't ask earlier was because I didn't think Lyra would want to join."

Jimmy smirked as well, "Confident huh? I like it." He said before turning to a certain blue-haired girl, "You want to help me out Marina?"

"Of course." She said.

The group went back on the main trail and started setting up for a battle. Once they were finished, the two sets of trainers took their places on opposite sides of the trail. Vincent acted as referee and Casey spectated from a distance.

"This will be a double battle between trainers Lyra and Khoury, and trainers Jimmy and Marina. Jimmy and Marina will send out their Pokémon first."

Jimmy turned to his female friend, "Starter duo?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Marina answered.

"Go Typhlosion!" Jimmy announced.

"Your up Feraligatr!" Marina said.

Two Pokémon emerged from the Pokeballs, out of Jimmy's was a 5 1/2 foot tall rodent-like fire type, while Marina's was a crocodile-looking Pokémon...

…that was over 7 1/2 feet tall!

Marina eyes then widened as she mentally kicked herself, how could she be so stupid to forget about Lyra's condition. The blue-haired girl was about to return her water-type until she saw Lyra's expression.

Lyra had flinched when she first saw Feraligatr, but other than that she wasn't as afraid as she thought she'd be. Her determination to join the group overshadowed her fears, mostly anyway.

"You alright Lyra?" Her best friend asked.

"Yeah surprisingly, I'm a little afraid, but all I can think about is passing this exam. Let's show them what we are made of!" Lyra answered.

"Heck Yeah! We'll give them everything we got!" Khoury exclaimed, no longer worried about Lyra.

The two quickly took out their Pokedexes to scan their opponents.

"_Typhlosion, the Volcano Pokémon, a fire-type, and the final evolved form of Cyndaquil. If this fire-type's rage peaks, it becomes so hot that anything that touches it will instantly go up in flames."_

_"Feraligatr, the Big Jaw Pokémon, and the final evolved form of Totodile. This water-type usually moves slowly, but it attacks its prey at blinding speeds."_

Khoury gazed at the Big Jaw Pokémon with wonder; "So that's what my Croconaw will become one day." He said.

"I don't know how a feel about that." Lyra said, still slightly intimidated by Feraligatr's size.

Lyra told Marina that it was okay to use Feraligatr, and then she and Khoury revealed their Pokémon.

"Blitzle! Battle time!" Lyra exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"It's time Gabite!" Khoury said with the same enthusiasm.

Out of Lyra's Pokeball came a white and black striped Pokémon, while Khoury's revealed a Pokémon with a draconic-looking appearance.

Having never seen these Pokémon before, Jimmy and Marina took out their Pokedexes just like Lyra and Khoury did before.

"_Blitzle, the Electrified Pokémon. When thunderclouds cover the sky, this electric-type will appear. It can catch lightning with its mane and store electricity."_

_"Gabite, the Cave Pokémon, and the evolved form of Gible. As this dragon/ground type digs to expand its nest, it habitually digs up gems that it then hoards in its nest."_

"Where'd you two get these Pokémon?" Jimmy asked.

"I caught Gabite when it was just a Gible in the Sinnoh region. Lyra caught Blitzle when we visited Unova not long after." Khoury answered.

Now that everyone was ready, Vincent finally began the battle; "Battle begin!"

Lyra decided to make the first move, "Use Thunderbolt on Feraligatr!"

Khoury followed suit, "Use Rock Slide on Typhlosion!"

The two Pokémon performed their respected attacks on their respective opponents with Blitzle launching a thunderbolt at Feraligatr and Gabite summoning an array of rocks and launching them at Typhlosion. The two attacks hit their targets, kicking up some dust.

"Awesome job Blitzle!" Lyra praised.

"You too Gabite, but we aren't in the clear yet. Did you notice that Jimmy and Marina didn't even tell their Pokémon to do anything." Khoury said.

Lyra's cheerful demeaner faded a little bit; "That's right, but why would they do that? We sent super effective attacks their way and they didn't even command them to do anything. That must mean that- oh no."

The dust settled, which revealed the larger Pokémon each with a light smirk on their faces. They looked hardly damaged at all! Jimmy and Marina had confident looks on their faces as well.

"Let's show them some real attacks Marina." Jimmy said to his blue-haired friend.

"Gladly." She answered.

"Use Flamethrower on Blitzle!" Jimmy commanded his Pokémon partner.

"Use Crunch on Gabite and stay there!" Marina told Feraligatr.

"Dodge it!" Lyra cried out to the Electrified Pokémon, she knew that unlike her opponents, Blitzle couldn't afford to get hit.

"You too Gabite!" Khoury said, following Lyra's example.

Due to its speed, Blitzle was able to easily dodge the incoming flamethrower. Gabite though, wasn't so lucky; Marina's Feraligatr lunged and bit the Cave Pokémon on the arm, refusing to let go. Gabite cried out in pain because of the attack.

"Use Thunderbolt on Feraligatr!" Lyra called out.

"Hey, don't forget about me now. Typhlosion, use Brick Break!" Jimmy said.

Blitzle launched a thunderbolt in Feraligatr's direction while Typhlosion rushed at the electric type with its hand prepared to deal a blow to it.

Marina had a plan to counter the incoming thunderbolt; "Use Gabite as a shield!"

Being stronger than the Cave Pokémon, Feraligatr heaved Gabite in front of the thunderbolt with its jaw still attached to its arm. The thunderbolt struck Gabite, but everyone knew that electric type attacks had no effect on ground type Pokémon.

"Now use your speed to get behind Typhlosion!" Lyra called out.

Blitzle very quickly rushed around Typhlosion so that it could get behind the Eruption Pokémon.

"Now use Thunder Wave!" Lyra called out.

"Not so fast! Bulldoze!" Jimmy commanded.

Khoury then came up with a plan; "Use Slash, then Dual Chop, then Dig to get out of there.

Blitzle tried to use shock wave, but Typhlosion stomped on the ground, which created a shock wave that caused the ground to move up and down. Blitzle got hit by the attack, causing the thunder wave attack to cancel and for Blitzle to take a lot of damage. Meanwhile, Khoury's Gabite used its free claw to slash Feraligatr's head, causing the Big Jaw Pokémon to let go and groan in pain. Gabite then used both of its claws to slash the water-types face once again, before escaping by digging a hole underground.

Lyra called Blitzle back to its side of the battle field, then Gabite appeared right next to it when it got there.

"These guys are no joke." Lyra stated the obvious.

"Yeah, but that's what we should expect from trainers who have been battling for four times as long as we have." Khoury said.

Lyra's eyes then lit up, as if she had an idea, then she whispered to Khoury.

After she was finished, Khoury gave her a surprised look, as if he hadn't expected such an idea to come from her; "That idea's so crazy, it might just work."

"Gabite! Go back underground!" Khoury commanded.

The Cave Pokémon escaped back into its hole, leaving Blitzle alone with two menacing beasts.

"Feraligatr, go over to that hole and shoot a Hydro Pump into it!" Marina told her water type.

"Typhlosion, use Flamethrower on Blitzle!" Jimmy said.

"Dodge it Blitzle!" Lyra called out.

Feraligatr made its way towards the hole very quickly while Typhlosion shot another Flamethrower at Blitzle. Just like last time though, Blitzle dodged very easily. By this time, Feraligatr was on top of the hole and was preparing to launch a Hydro Pump.

"Use Shock Wave on Feraligatr!" Lyra said to Blitzle.

"What did I say about forgetting me? Typhlosion use Brick Break!" Jimmy commanded.

"I don't think so." Khoury said.

The shock wave attack hit Feraligatr, causing to cancel its hydro pump and for the Big Jaw Pokémon to grit its teeth in pain. Then Gabite came up from the ground, which happened to be underneath Typhlosion, damaging it and canceling its attack.

Jimmy and Marina were quite shocked by their strategy, Lyra and Khoury were definitely tougher than they thought.

Jimmy put on his serious demeaner and commanded the Volcano Pokémon; "Go up to Blitzle!"

Marina followed suit, "Go to Gabite and used Aqua Tail!"

Typhlosion made its way to the Electrified Pokémon while Feraligatr used its surprising speed to whack Gabite in the face with its tail, causing quite a bit of damage.

"Dodge Typhlosion, quick!" Lyra called out to Blitzle.

"Grab it." Jimmy said simply.

Blitzle attempted to dodge the incoming fire-type, but it was caught in its claws before it could escape.

"Use Dual Chop Gabite!" Khoury called out.

"Nope! Use Hydro Pump to push it back Feraligatr!" Marina commanded.

Gabite tried to slash the Big Jaw Pokémon with its blades, but a huge wave of water coming from Feraligatr's mouth prevented it from doing so. After the attack, Gabite was barely standing.

Meanwhile, Jimmy had a plan to deal with the Blitzle that was now trapped within Typhlosion's grasp, "Use Eruption to finish it!"

Lyra tried to come up with a plan, Blitzle's moves included Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Shock Wave, and Flame Charge. She came up with a risky idea that might not work, but it was better than doing nothing.

"Use Flame Charge!" Lyra called out.

Blitzle's body heat increased as Typhlosion charged its attack. Then Typhlosion released a huge amount of heat energy as the flames on its back grew ginormous in size. Everyone stared in awe at the sight of Eruption, then the heat died down, weakening Typhlosion's strength temporarily, allowing Blitzle to escape, damaged, but okay.

"What? That attack surely should have taken it out!" Jimmy was surprised that Blitzle was still standing.

"Well, I told Blitzle to use Flame Charge because of its type. Since Blitzle isn't a fire type, a protective barrier is formed to protect it against heat so that it can use Flame Charge without burning itself. I used this to my advantage so that Blitzle wouldn't have taken as much damage from eruption as it should have." Lyra explained before adding, "Just goes to show that Khoury's nerdiness can come in handy... rarely."

"I resent that!" Her best friend retorted.

"Hmm, they're tougher than I thought, guess there's no more holding back now, right Marina?" Jimmy said.

Marina nodded before each of them commanded their respected Pokémon.

"Bite on Gabite's arm again, but use Ice Fang instead!" Marina exclaimed.

"Bulldoze on Blitzle!" Jimmy said.

Typhlosion plowed through the ground once again, causing Blitzle to take devastating damage once again. It was hardly keeping itself up now.

Meanwhile, Feraligatr snarled at its victim and lunged forth once again. The dragon/ground-type tried to dodge it but its arm was caught in freezing jaws. Unlike crunch, ice fang was massively effective on Gabite, instantly causing it to fall to the ground, fainted. Feraligatr let go once Gabite was no longer able to go on.

"Gabite is unable to battle!" Vincent announced.

Khoury walked over to his fallen Pokémon and helped it stand; "Thank you Gabite, you gave it your all, take a long rest." Gabite gave a sad nod as Khoury retuned it to its Pokeball.

Meanwhile, Blitzle's legs were wobbling, it was weak from taking so many attacks, it didn't want to give up though.

Lyra called out to her wounded Pokémon; "C'mon Blitzle! I know that you can do it! Show them how strong you are!"

The Electrified Pokémon heard its trainer's cries, it needed to prove how strong it was. Just as it found its will to continue, Blitzle gave into the pain and fell to the ground.

"Blitzle!" Lyra called out in worry.

"Blitzle is unable to battle, which means that Typhlosion and Feraligatr are the winners!"

The Pokémon that one gave each other a high-five while Jimmy and Marina did the same.

Lyra ran over to her fallen electric type and knelt down next to it; "Hey, thank you Blitzle, you really gave it your all out there, I'm proud of you."

"Blit…" The Pokémon said, disappointed in itself.

"Don't be so sad, we'll use this battle as a learning experience. We may not have passed the exam, but we'll get stronger and battle them again, and then we'll beat them for sure!" Lyra consoled the Electrified Pokémon.

Blitzle smiled weakly before Lyra returned it to its Pokeball.

Jimmy and Marina then walked up to her and Khoury.

"Great battle you two, you pulled off some good moves back there." Jimmy said.

"Yeah! You guys are smart!" Marina added.

"Thank you! But we couldn't beat you, so we failed the exam. Lyra said, feeling a little dejected.

Jimmy and Marina put on confused looks for a second before Jimmy answered, "Lyra, do you think Vincent and Casey are on this team because they beat us?"

"Um, yeah. Did they not beat you or something?" Lyra said.

Marina smiled, "The point of the exam was not for you to beat us, but for you to show how well you and your Pokémon perform in battle. You must understand that none of Vincent and Casey's Pokémon can defeat Typhlosion or Feraligatr, not even Vincent's Meganium. The point is that you showed off some strategy and teamwork during the battle, and for that, both of you passed!"

The two younger trainers were in a bit of a shock after hearing that, "W-we passed?" Khoury asked in disbelief.

"Yee-up! Welcome to the team!" Marina said.

Vincent and Casey walked up to the new members, "You two were so great! Most trainers don't last more than 30 seconds against Jimmy and Marina! I look forward to traveling with you guys!" Casey replied in her usual enthusiastic nature.

"Heh, don't go slowing our team down you two." Vincent replied, but everyone could tell he was joking and happy to have new members on the team as well.

"Thank you all, I promise that me and Lyra will give this team our all." Khoury said.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Lyra pumped her fist in the air.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the leader here." Jimmy mumbled.

* * *

**Same day, 10:46 PM**

Khoury was sleeping in a large tent with the other boys, tired from the events that took place today. The group liked to travel rather quickly, which didn't work for his weak leg muscles, he really needed to work out more. Then he awoke needing to use the restroom. He quietly unzipped the tent in order to not disturb the rest of the tent's inhabitants and stepped out into the warm summer night. It was relatively quiet, with the occasional Yanma beating its wings in order to fly. Using his flashlight, he trudged over to the dense forest.

After he was finished emptying his system, he started heading back to the tent until something caught his eye. A silhouette of a person turned away from him was there, staring into the night sky. Curious, he crept closer to the figure, realizing that it was his best friend.

"Lyra? What are you doing up?" He asked.

The girl turned towards the green-haired boy, compared to how she looked during the daytime, you almost couldn't tell that she was Lyra. She was missing her hat of course, and her hair was down, not in pigtails like usual. She gave Khoury a quick smile; "Hi Khoury, I'm fine, just doing some thinking, nothing to be concerned about."

"That's all the reason to be concerned." He replied.

"Ouch. Alright, I'll tell you." Lyra said before continuing, "I'm starting to question whether or not I made the right decision joining Jimmy's group."

"Are you scared Lyra?" Khoury asked in concern.

"Well yes, and no. I don't know anymore, this is one of the craziest decisions I've ever made." Lyra replied.

Khoury sighed, "Yeah, I don't have your condition, so what I have to say won't make it go away. I can understand that choosing your safety or helping others is very difficult."

"What do you suppose I should do?"

"That's not my choice to make, but how about you look at it this way: Your phobia has been controlling your life ever since that day 11 years ago, but what do you want to do about it?" Khoury said.

"I want it to go away, but its not that simple." Lyra said.

"Your right, there are certain steps you have to take in order for it to soften. It'll likely never go away, but you can take action to soften its effects." Khoury said.

"Like what?"

"We found a potential solution today."

Lyra gave Khoury a confused look before realization hit her, "Marina's Feraligatr?"

"Not just Marina's Feraligatr, but others as well." Khoury responded.

"Similar to some allergies, the simplest way of treating a phobia is to be exposed to the thing your allergic to or afraid of. You can start by warming up to Pokémon like Feraligatr, and..." Khoury paused before continuing, "...my Gabite when it evolves into Garchomp."

"How big can those get?" Lyra asked.

"Over 6 feet." Khoury nervously answered.

"Khoury! You lied to me!" Lyra said sticking her tongue at him.

"I didn't lie! I just, didn't bother to tell you..." Khoury said attempting to defend his actions.

"Lies of omission are still lies Khoury."

"Fine, you win."

the two friends sat in silence for a few more minutes before Lyra stood up; "Thanks for the talk Khoury, I needed it."

Khoury smiled, standing up as well; "What are best friends for?"

Before they went off to bed, Lyra hugged Khoury for a while, a sign of appreciation and friendship. After the long hug, Lyra let go.

"See you in the morning Khoury!" She said before heading off to her tent.

"Heh, you too."

* * *

**Trainer Card: Lyra Stevens**

**Age: 17**

**Hometown: New Bark Town, Johto**

**Birthday: December 26th, 1987**

**Height: 5'5**

**Blood type: B**

**Eye color: Brown**

**Hair color: Brown**

**Trainer class: Pokémon Battler**

**Secondary class: Pokémon Trainer**

**Others Hobbies: Any sport that requires a lot of moving, hanging out with friends, annoying Khoury**

**Notable achievements: n/a**

**Special Conditions: Megalophobia**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokémon (On hand)**

**-Bayleef (M)**

**-Girafarig (M)**

**-Marill (F)**

**-Blitzle (F)**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

**Sorry for the incredibly long chapter, but this had a lot of important things to address. So, what do you think of Khoury and Lyra being a part of this story? Please make sure to tell me!**

**As you can tell, Lyra will be more important than Khoury so she'll be developed more, but Khoury and the other characters will get their times to shine.**

**Lyra is similar personality-wise as she is in the anime, but she'll get on people's nerves less often.**

**Khoury is less nervous than how he was in the anime and is even a little cocky here. He's very intelligent and likes to study Pokémon.**

**That concludes this chapter.**

**Peace! **


	5. Chapter 5: A Bone to Pick

**Welcome back to another chapter of Immunity!**

**Also, I'm sorry for the wait on this chapter, I have been busy lately, so I could not work on it.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: A Bone to Pick**

* * *

**Unknown location**

"Where are you, you little pest!"

A man wearing a uniform sporting a red "R" was navigating the forest in search of a Pokémon, it had been causing troubles for Team Rocket as it would always jam the gears in their machines. Team Rocket really needed to be more organized. The man then spotted a small brown tail sticking out of a bush, it seemed his target wasn't being very smart.

"There you are you punk." He said in a sinister tone before he reached out his hand to grab the tail, but his hand was then slapped by a small white object! "Ouch!" he yelled, grabbing his hand that was now sporting a very noticeable bruise on it. Angrily, he took out a Pokeball and released its contents, "Golbat go!."

A bat-like creature with a huge jaw emerged from the sphere, it was Golbat, the Bat Pokémon. "Golbat! Go find that troublemaker and rid the world of it!" the man shouted angrily. Golbat nodded, and went off to go and find the said Pokémon.

3 hours passed and the mysterious Pokémon was no where to be found, Golbat solemnly returned to its trainer. "Did you find it?" the Golbat shook its head. "Ugh, you're useless! Work harder next time!" he said returning Golbat to its Pokeball. He looked at the small object with sadness in his eyes.

"_Is this really the right way?"_ he thought to himself.

* * *

**6 days later, Monday, July 14th, 2005 8:09 am, Azalea Town.**

The group, now composed of six people are preparing to leave Azalea Town, where they had spent the night in its local Pokemon center. The girls had bunked in one room while the boys were in the other. Khoury didn't exactly sleep well due to Vincent snickering and telling his roommates jokes all night. Khoury was one to sleep on time and not get distracted, so because of that, Khoury was having trouble adjusting to traveling with an older boy who acted like an adult during the day, but was less mature than a 10-year-old at night.

Lyra had a bit of trouble adjusting as well, but her exposure therapy had started and was showing positive effects on her. She had mostly warmed up to Feraligatr to the point where she wouldn't have a bad reaction when it was out, but she still wasn't completely comfortable with touching it.

There were good moments too though, both of the new additions got along with everyone and were comfortable with being their companions. Vincent behaved around them (at least, during the day) and even told them a few of his GOOD jokes, which he only tells to people he likes.

After 6 days of traveling, the friends were now exiting Azalea town, which is home to one of the regions 8 gyms. Since Lyra had already defeated the gym leader, there was no need to make a visit to it. They were now journeying through Ilex Forest, which is a place where the trees are so packed together, that it almost looks like it's night time inside the forest. That's why the group had bought flashlights before entering the woods.

"I remember the first time me and Lyra went through here. It was... a memorable experience." Khoury said as he recollected his memories of the mysterious forest.

"I was legit terrified." Lyra said.

Casey looked at Lyra in disbelief, "YOU were terrified? I was TEN when I first went through this stupid forest! I didn't even bring a flashlight!"

"Oof, well, it's honestly really easy to just not think about how dark it is for me," Jimmy elaborated, "But that's just me."

Casey looked at Jimmy in disbelief, "Where can I get this legendary mindset of yours?"

"You can buy it from the Devon Corporation for $39.99 plus shipping and handling" Jimmy said jokingly.

"Gotcha." Casey answered

The group continued through the dark forest. The dark woods concealed the culprits of all the noise in the forest. the buzzing of the Ledyba, along with the occasional hoot of a Noctowl made the forest sound so alive.

Eventually, the group noticed an area that wasn't as dark as the rest of the forest. Curious, they made their way to a clearing. At the center of the clearing was a medium-sized structure, which a majority of the group recognized immediately.

"Ah, that's the Ilex forest shrine, they say Celebi comes here sometimes," Khoury said, expressing his knowledge.

"Celebi?" Lyra said, looking it up in her Pokedex, in spite of having traveled the forest before, she and Khoury hadn't come across the shrine before. Maybe it was just bad luck.

_"Celebi, the Time Travel Pokémon. This grass-type wanders across time. Grass and trees flourish in the forests in which it has appeared." _The Pokedex said.

"So this Pokémon can really travel through time?" Lyra asked, finding the matter hard to believe.

"Call it a bunch of garbage, but its true." Marina said.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Lyra said.

"Just wait until she finds out about Jirachi." Khoury mumbled low enough so that nobody could hear.

Just then, they heard a rustle in the bushes, curious, the group walked over to the noise until a tiny creature walked out. It was only a little over a foot tall, with brown skin and a very defining skull worn on its head. One would consider the creature to be cute, but one look from its piercing gaze was enough to unsettle the team. Lyra took out her Pokedex for a second time that day and scanned the creature.

"_Cubone, the Lonely Pokémon. If this ground type is sad or lonely, the skull it wears emits a plaintive and mournful sound."_

Lyra scrolled on the entry for more information and found something shocking; "Um, Cubone isn't actually native to Johto."

"I know, its very strange that one would be here." Khoury said, "maybe it was released into the forest by a trainer."

"Or maybe it came from Kanto through Tohjo Falls." Vincent suggested, not realizing how absurd his proposition was.

"Vincent, that has to be, one of the dumbest things you have ever said. Get some common sense for once." Jimmy said.

"Harsh!" the other boy retaliated.

Lyra tried to approach the small creature, but she was stopped by Khoury; "Lyra, Cubone are naturally suspicious Pokémon, we would have to earn its trust first in order to approach it." he said.

Lyra nodded, understanding, "Well, it looks a little worn out, do you think it will trust us if we give it some food and a place to rest?"

"I think that's the best option we have if we want it to trust us." her best friend said.

Lyra took her backpack off of her shoulders and got a few berries of assorted types out before setting them down a few feet away from the Cubone. While she was closer to the Pokémon, she noticed that half of its bone club was missing. Shaking the detail away, she stepped back a few feet so that she wasn't in Cubone's way. The Lonely Pokémon gave the berries a quick look and then fixed its blank stare at Lyra as it walked towards the food. Slowly, without ever taking its eyes off of Lyra, the ground type picked up a berry off of the ground and stuck it underneath the skull it was wearing, presumably into its mouth. After chewing and swallowing the berry, the Lonely Pokémon picked up the other berries and rushed back into the forest.

"Hey!" Lyra yelled.

"Lyra don't, if you want to get closer to it, maybe we should just leave it be for now. Since you fed it, there's a chance Cubone will follow us." Khoury said.

Lyra sighed in defeat, beaten by logic once again.

"Dang, he's really smart." Vincent mumbled.

"Maybe you can learn a thing or two from him." Jimmy replied.

"Why are you so mean to meeee?" Vincent whined.

"Alright that's it, Jimmy, Vincent, cut it out." Marina stepped between the two boys.

"We're just messing around Marina." Jimmy said.

"Yeah, I know Jimmy doesn't mean the stuff he said." said Vincent.

"Oh, well... sorry about that." Marina said, slightly embarrassed.

Jimmy was slightly confused by Marina's behavior, "_That's strange, Marina knows that me and Vincent like to joke around. Why would she suddenly get so defensive about that if she knows how we are. It's probably nothing, so I'll drop it for now."_

The group continued their trek through the forest, using their flashlights to navigate through the dark woodland. As they were walking, they would regularly converse with each other and make jokes; Marina was currently being a little quieter than normal, along with having a very uncomfortable look on her face. This did not go unnoticed by her two long-time friends however.

"Psst, Vincent, have you noticed that Marina is being a little quieter than normal?" Jimmy asked his male friend in low voice.

"I have, it's unlike her to be this way, I wonder what's bothering her." Vincent answered.

"She started acting this way when we were joking around with each other." Jimmy said, "do you think it may have something to do with that?"

"I'm not sure, but we shouldn't bug her about it, maybe she'll tell us about it some other time." Vincent said.

Jimmy nodded and everyone went back to their normal conversations. The group didn't notice a pair of blue eyes staring at them from behind, before whatever they belonged to disappeared into the darkness.

The six friends stopped to have lunch in the middle of the forest, setting up lanterns so they could see. Nothing came to bother them while they were eating, only the sound of the Pokemon was heard. After eating, the group packed up and started to brave the rest of the dark woods.

Eventually, after a bit of walking, a light was seen that was not generated from their flashlights. Curious, the group crept towards the direction the light was coming from until they saw a man surrounded by a few set up lanterns. He was around six feet tall and was wearing a black uniform, it only took a second to figure out who this guy was.

Jimmy ushered everyone behind a nearby bush and watched behind it. The man appeared to be waiting patiently, for what though, was anybody's guess.

After a few minutes of waiting, three Pokemon came into view, a green and brown Pokemon with a mushroom cap for the top of its head, a somewhat transparent Pokemon that loosely resembled a puppet, and a white and black Pokemon that somewhat resembled a head. Upon closer inspection, the last Pokemon had a colorful stone attached to its forehead, but nobody from the group could make out what it was.

Lyra took out her Pokedex, making sure to shut off the volume first, and scanned each Pokemon.

Lyra scanned the mushroom-looking Pokemon first: "_Breloom, the Mushroom Pokemon, and the evolved form of Shroomish. This Grass/Fighting type scatters poisonous spores and throws powerful punches while its foe is hampered by inhaled spores."_

Next, the obvious ghost-type was scanned, "_Banette, the Marionette Pokemon, and the evolved form of Shuppet. This Pokemon developed from an abandoned doll that amassed a grudge. It is often seen in dark alleys."_

Then finally, the Pokémon with the weird stone on its forehead was scanned with the Pokedex, "_Glalie, the face Pokémon, and the evolved form of Snorunt. This ice-type can instantly freeze moisture in the atmosphere. It uses this power to freeze its foes._

"I've never seen those types of Pokémon before." Lyra whispered, "are they not native to Johto?"

Jimmy answered her, "They're from Hoenn, but I'm not sure why that Glalie has that stone on its head."

Khoury tried to get a closer look, but the Pokémon was too far away from him so he couldn't make an accurate analysis. The group started quietly conversing with each other, deciding whether or not they should confront the Rocket agent.

"I say, we go and take him out!" It'll be 6 vs. 1 anyway." Vincent suggested to his friends.

"Then we won't get anything out of him, I say we wait and see what he's doing before deciding on anything else." Marina came up with her own solution to counter Vincent's.

"Bah! Okay, let's take a vote! Anyone who votes for my awesome plan says "Aye", and anyone voting for Marina's stupid plan says "Nay". Anyone who has a different idea doesn't say anything. Understood? Let's vote."

Do I even need to tell you that only one person said "Aye"?

After Vincent complained a little bit, the group started examining the scene once more. But instead of three Pokémon out, there were four. The newcomer was a bulky blue Pokémon. Lyra took out her Pokedex again and read the entry.

"_Swampert, the Mud Fish Pokémon, and the final evolved form of Mudkip. The arms of the water/ground-type are as hard as rock. With one swing, it can break a boulder to pieces."_

"That's one of the starter Pokémon from the Hoenn region." Jimmy said, "It's weird to see a member of Team Rocket using a starter."

"Who knows? Maybe he started his journey in Littleroot Town and received Mudkip before he joined Team Rocket." Marina theorized.

"Maybe, but you can also find starters in the wild. They're rare, but you can still find then." Vincent said something smart for once.

Suddenly, the man started speaking, the group lowered their voices and listened in on the conversation.

"None of you have found that brat yet? Ugh, you're all so useless! You better hope Golbat and Hariyama had better luck or you all are in for a beating!" The man yelled angrily as the Pokémon all looked down, ashamed of themselves.

The group all watched in anger after seeing the man's attitude, this was the reason they hated Team Rocket so much in the first place: they treated all Pokémon like garbage, not caring about their feelings. Casey had to resist the urge to go and punch the creep where he stood. There were still unanswered questions however, who was the "brat" that the man was looking for? What could they have possibly done?

Suddenly, a large bat-looking creature entered the area, which the group all recognized as a Golbat since it was native to the region. Lyra flinched when she saw the large poison/flying-type, but she kept her cool. Curiously, Golbat's mouth was closed instead of open, as if it was trying to keep something in.

"Have you found it?" the man asked simply.

The Bat Pokémon opened its mouth and out tumbled a small, brown creature with a white object in its hand.

Everyone in the group almost gasped when they saw the tiny Pokémon. It was a Cubone, and not just any Cubone, the same one they saw earlier today, they could tell be the chipped bone it was holding. The little guy look battered and bruised, maybe from fighting that Golbat.

"Thought you could run from me did you?" The man spat at the Lonely Pokémon distastefully. "Don't worry, in spite of you being a massive nuisance for years now, I'll make sure your death goes by _real_ quick." He said with obvious sarcasm in his voice, although, it did sound a little forced.

"They want to kill Cubone? I won't allow that! Let's go fight hi-" Lyra began.

"Hold your Ponytas! We can't just attack him like that!" Khoury spoke in a hushed tone, holding her back in the process. "Does anyone have a ghost-type Pokémon we can use?" he asked.

"I have a Mismagius, but we shouldn't be using ghost-types even if they can turn invisible, that Banette is also a ghost-type so it may be able to detect any Ghost Pokémon in the area." Marina said, shutting down Khoury's idea, "Maybe we can use a fast Pokémon instead."

"That's not a bad idea Marina, we're lucky that Golbat isn't a Crobat or we'd be in serious trouble concerning speed." Jimmy said.

"I have Electibuzz, its pretty fast." Casey said.

"But at the same time, we need something small." Khoury said, "When it comes to fast Pokémon, Sneasel is the best I got, but we are open to other suggestions in case we have a better option."

While they were conversing about which Pokémon to use, the group surprisingly didn't notice a large presence walk up behind them...

* * *

"Oof!"

Naturally, if you were kicked very hard when you weren't expecting it, you'd be hurt too. It's not everyday a powerful fighting-type decides to kick a human with all of their might, but when they do, it hurts.

A lot.

Anyway, the group were kicked very harshly by a large creature, revealing their location to the Rocket agent, who immediately turned his attention toward them.

"What are you kids doing here?" He said in a harsh voice.

"I don't know, what are YOU doing here?" Vincent said rudely.

"Don't "I don't know" me. Answer my question before my Hariyama kicks you all again." The man reiterated his question.

The group turned around to see the Pokémon that had revealed their location the Rocket agent, which Jimmy and his three childhood friends identified as a Hariyama. Hariyama were very large and bulky fighting-type Pokémon, but they were also ridiculously slow, which balanced out their power and durability.

If there's a Pokémon larger than a normal human being could be, a certain someone will naturally have a bad reaction.

Lyra had gotten surprisingly comfortable to Marina's Feraligatr in the short time that the group had spent with each other, but it could not prepare her for the huge menace that stood in front of her now. Her face turned pale as soon as she saw the 7 1/2 foot tall Hariyama that was standing very close to her. Lyra's breathing began to quicken as fear seeped through her mind.

Khoury was able to take note of this however and put his hand on hid best friend's shoulder for reassurance, causing her to turn to face him. She forced a smile at him, slightly reassured but she was still deathly afraid

Jimmy (who had also noticed Lyra's reaction to the Hariyama),knowing that they had to get out of their current situation so that Lyra's condition couldn't get worse, answered the man's question; "We apologize for the intrusion, me and my team just happened to notice you and your Pokémon, we have never seen them before aside from your Golbat.

Jimmy's story would make sense to a lot of people, it's true that the Rocket agent's team is mostly made up of Hoenn Pokémon, so one would expect people to Johto to not know them. Unfortunately for our team of heroes, the man wasn't easily fooled.

"You all are too old to be hiding in a bush just to see Pokémon you've never seen before. Besides, no one would stick around a member of Team Rocket even if their life depended on it without a good reason. I'll ask again: why are you here?" The man said.

Jimmy shut up after that.

"That's what I thought, it's a shame that today's society is filled with wannabe heroes who think they can take down huge criminal organizations like Team Rocket. Maybe it's time I give you a reality slap, Team Rocket is not a joke, it's the real deal." The Rocket agent said to them menacingly. Then he turned to the Arm Thrust Pokémon (Hariyama), "Hariyama, use..." he hesitated, "...use Wake-up Slap."

An odd move to use, but a fitting one for the situation.

Hariyama raised it's hand and began to bring it down on the group.

But it never got the chance.

The fighting-type grimaced as if it were in pain and cancelled it's attack, angrily, it turned around to face its opponent. However, nothing was there.

Then it felt a sharp pain on it's backside again, Hariyama turned around and saw a very strange looking bird creature.

Marina smirked and spoke to the new Pokémon, "Thanks Xatu, I knew I could count on you!" she then turned to her teammates, "Quick! Send out a Pokémon to defend yourself!"

Everyone took out a Pokeball and released their contents.

Out of Jimmy's ball came a Camerupt, a Ground/Fire Pokémon.

Out of Vincent's was a Magnezone, a Steel/Electric type.

Casey's ball contained an Electrike, an electric type.

Khoury's ball had a Sneasel, a dark/ice type.

Someone was missing though.

Everyone looked towards Lyra, she was still in a mental shock so she was slightly behind. Suddenly realizing what they were doing, Lyra took out her own Pokeball.

Then she felt something tap her leg. Lyra looked down and saw the Cubone from earlier. It was putting on a determined face, maybe it wanted to fight.

"Do you want to fight Cubone?" She asked the small creature. The ground-type nodded its head and turned around, ready to battle. Lyra didn't want Cubone to fight since it looked a little worn out, but she knew that there was no deterring the spirit of the Lonely Pokémon.

The Rocket agent gritted his teeth and looked at his opponents angrily, "six against one, real fair. No matter, I will defeat you all no matter what the odds are!"

"Show us!" Jimmy shouted confidently.

The Rocket grunt commanded his Pokémon to attack the group and our heroes began to fight back. Something surprising was the fact that most of his Pokémon were battling without orders from the grunt, which would make them incredibly talented. The only one that was receiving commands was Golbat, who he had decided to battle Lyra and Cubone with.

Lyra very quickly checked her Pokedex on what moves Cubone knew and frowned in dissatisfaction, Cubone only knew one move that could actually damage the Golbat

"Golbat, use Sludge Bomb to end this quickly," the man said simply.

The Bat Pokémon created a huge glob of purple liquid and launched it at the ground-type.

"Dodge and use headbutt!" Lyra called out.

Cubone obeyed and nimbly dodged the Sludge Bomb, then it launched itself in the air to Headbutt its opponent. Much to Lyra and Cubone's dismay, the Golbat easily dodged the attack and Cubone tumbled to the ground. Lyra grimaced when she saw this, it seemed that brute strength wasn't going to win them this battle.

Lyra didn't have a plan to defeat the Poison/flying type, so she decided to play defense until something came to her mind.

"Use Crunch!" The grunt called out.

"Dodge it!" Lyra commanded the ground-type.

Golbat swooped down in an attempt to attack Cubone with Crunch, but the Lonely Pokémon rolled out of the way, causing Golbat to smash itself on the ground. A lightbulb went off in the teenage girl's head when this happened.

"_That's right! Flying types can be affected by ground type attacks when they are on the ground!"_ Lyra thought to herself, having a "EUREKA!" moment.

"Use Bone Club before it can get back up!" Lyra commanded Cubone.

"Get out of there!" Golbat's trainer commanded.

Cubone readied its club to strike its foe, but the quick Golbat was able to escape and leave in time and take flight again. Lyra frowned, she knew that the Rocket Grunt would make an effort to not give her that window of opportunity again, so she would have to rethink her strategy for the time being.

Before that could happen however, Golbat's trainer issued another command, "Use Shadow Ball." Shadow Ball is a long-ranged attack, which made it obvious that the Rocket grunt was trying to avoid getting in close proximity to the ground.

Golbat created a glowing ball of dark energy and launched it in Cubone's direction.

"Dodge it!" she ordered Cubone.

Just as Cubone dodged, an idea came to Lyra's mind a second too late, she could use Cubone's bone to knock Golbat's ranged attacks back! With this in mind, as well as the other tactic of getting Golbat on the ground, Lyra could now formulate a strategy.

"Cubone, use Headbutt!" Lyra commanded.

"Shadow Ball again."

Cubone leaped up toward Golbat again while the bat Pokémon created another ball of ghastly energy to throw at the ground-type. But before the ghost-type attack hit, Lyra shouted another command: "Use Bone Club to deflect it!"

Cubone quickly hit the Shadow Ball with its bone, causing the ball of energy to ricochet back to its creator. The Shadow Ball hit Golbat, damaging and dazing it temporarily. Before it gained its focus back, it was knocked downwards toward the ground. Cubone had managed to strike Golbat with its headbutt attack from above while it was dazed. Golbat dropped to the ground forcefully, disrupting its balance once again.

"Now while it's on the ground, use Bone Club!" Lyra commanded.

Cubone dropped down to Golbat and struck it with its bone. With the added force of the extra altitude, and the type effectiveness on poison-types, the attack did a lot more damage than it should have.

"That's a lot of damage!" Jimmy said.

**Dude, shut up.**

The calm demeanor on the Rocket member's face faded, now he looked mad... boiling mad.

"Get up Golbat! Use Air Slash on that runt!" The Rocket commanded, unable to hide his wrath.

Golbat got up surprisingly quickly, indicating that it was probably trained very well, and quickly flapped its wings, creating waves of energy in Cubone's direction. Without any further hesitation, the Bat Pokémon launched the attack toward Cubone with incredible speed. Lyra nor Cubone had any time to react before the flying-type attack hit Cubone square in the face, sending it backward.

"Cubone!" Lyra cried out in worry.

Cubone took a second to sort itself out before getting up again, more determined than ever. It gave Lyra a look that told her it was still able to fight, to which the girl nodded in understanding.

"Golbat, use Sludge Bomb!" The Rocket commanded.

"Dodge the attack!" Lyra said to Cubone, knowing that Sludge Bomb could not be knocked back.

Cubone swiftly avoided the Sludge Bomb attack and awaited for Lyra's instructions. The said girl was anxiously waiting for what the Rocket's next attack would be.

But nothing came.

Both of them were silently watching their respective opponents carefully. Nobody wanted to make the next attack first.

...

...

Lyra felt some small relief that this was happening, Jimmy had contacted the police so if she could stall this out, then the man would be arrested without risking anything. Then she looked at the Lonely Pokémon, who was giving her the "What the heck?" look. She felt bad that Cubone wouldn't be getting the action that it wanted, but it was better to wait for the police.

Then a thought came to her, what if the man was trying to stall them out? Maybe HE called backup, like how they called the police. This guy was tough enough on his own, there was no way that they could handle an entire team of them with Pokémon of similar power.

She needed a plan before things got out of hand, she scanned her surroundings for anything Cubone could use, but there was nothing but grass and trees.

Then a risky idea came to her mind.

"Cubone, leap up and attack Golbat with Headbutt again!" She commanded the ground-type.

The man smirked and commanded his faithful flying/poison-type, "Fly up and use Crunch when it hits the ground!"

"Grab its foot!"

Golbat began to fly up, but Cubone managed to reach its foot and grabbed it. Then, the Lonely Pokémon threw the Poison/flying type to the ground with Cubone. following close behind. Since it was vulnerable again, Lyra commanded Cubone to attack Golbat with Bone Club again, which dealt super effective damage again.

Golbat struggled to get up this time, but still managed to take flight again. It's trainer couldn't believe that he was being beaten by a measly Cubone.

"Golbat, use Shadow Ball followed up by a Air slash!" The Rocket yelled angrily.

Golbat, in spite of it being worn-out, managed to create two concentrations of energy and fired them both at Cubone, the Shadow Ball first, and the Air Slash second.

"Deflect it!" Lyra commanded.

Cubone deflected the Shadow Ball towards the Air Slash, causing both attacks to collide, creating a miniature explosion. When the dust cleared, Golbat appeared with its mouth open wide, racing towards Cubone.

The Lonely Pokémon didn't have time to react before it was scooped up into the Bat Pokémon's mouth. It seemed that the grunt had commanded the Poison/flying-type to use Crunch during the explosion is it was trying its hardest to bite down on the Lonely Pokémon.

Lyra's mind raced for a plan as she knew that Cubone couldn't hold out forever in there. As she was thinking, she noticed how Golbat's flight was beginning to falter.

Another risky plan came to mind, but she didn't have any other options, "Cubone, force your weight downward!"

Cubone barely heard Lyra's command, but it still managed to understand and began pushing its weight.

Golbat winced and fought to stay afloat, but it couldn't and it fell to the ground.

"One last time! Bone Club!"

Golbat suddenly went limp with swirls in its eyes. It's mouth opened and an exhausted Cubone tiredly climbed out.

A wide smile spread across Lyra's face at the sight of her victory. Unable to contain her excitement, she ran over to Cubone, picked the little creature up, and hugged it tightly, even though it was covered in saliva.

"We did it Cubone! We actually did it!" She said excitedly to the tiny creature.

"Cubone!" The Lonely Pokémon exclaimed, it was clearly happy too.

Lyra turned her attention to the Rocket agent. Surprisingly, he wasn't mad at all. He looked... defeated? Sure, he was just beaten, but this wasn't normal Team Rocket behavior.

He took out a Pokeball and returned Golbat, "Come back Golbat."

Then he turned to his other Pokémon, they were all defeated by the rest of the Team. He sighed and returned them too.

He looked down and mumbled something.

"Um, sorry, I can't hear you." Lyra said to the man.

Her friends have now come over to the scene, watching the exchange very carefully.

"I don't understand." He said.

"Don't understand what?" Lyra asked.

"How could I lose? I've been with these Pokémon for years, you've only known Cubone for a few minutes. How could you, with your lack of experience, defeat me?" The man said.

Lyra thought for a moment, it was a difficult question that she was even pondering herself, but she eventually had an answer.

"The difference is that I believed in Cubone, and Cubone believed in me. I don't treat it like a tool like Team Rocket treats their Pokémon, Cubone is a living creature with special abilities. I knew we could beat Golbat because I look at Cubone's experience with me or what the Pokedex says about its general power. Cubone's determination and willpower won it the battle today." Lyra said.

"Whoa, since when did you become someone to give advice?" Vincent asked.

"Since always Kolack." Lyra refuted.

Lyra turned her attention back to the man, "My point is that your relationship with your Pokémon matters the most. You can't just relay on brute strength when it comes to your Pokémon. Sometimes, a strong bond with your Pokémon can result in evolution.

The man looked up at the girl, clearly confused.

She gave one last smile and walked back to her friends, "I hope you find some use to my words!"

"Wait! What do you mean by evo-"

But she was already gone.

The Rocket Grunt sighed and looked down at Golbat's Pokeball, "Maybe I was wrong..."

He stood up and began walking in the opposite direction of where the group went. Before he disappeared into the darkness, he turned his head around one last time and smiled.

"Thank you."

* * *

"How'd you get so wise?" Vincent asked Lyra.

"I didn't, I was just repeating something Khoury said to me once." She answered.

"Oh, Khoury! Teach me your wisdom!" Vincent begged the younger boy.

"Sure, but only if you can grow a brain."

"...Dang ok."

* * *

**Trainer Card: Vincent Kolack**

**Age: 18**

**Hometown: New Bark Town**

**Birthday: June 3rd**

**Height: 5'10**

**Blood Type: B**

**Eye Color: Light Brown**

**Hair Color: Light Brown**

**Trainer Class: Pokémon Trainer**

**Secondary Class: Pokémon Battler**

**Other Hobbies: Soccer, Basketball, Making a fool out of himself and others**

**Notable achievements: 2000 Silver Conference - Top 48**

**Special Conditions: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokémon (on hand):**

**-Meganium(M)**

**-Quagsire(M)**

**-Poliwrath(F)**

**-Magnezone(Genderless)(Shiny)**

**-Golduck(M)**

**-Pinsir(F)**

* * *

**Poor Vincent, just wants a little brainpower... I feel him lol**

**See you all next time, hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up sooner than this one.**


	6. Chapter 6: Cave Calamity

**?: Hey you!**

**Me?**

**?: Yeah! I'm talking to you!**

**What do you want?**

**?: When am I going to show up in this story?**

**Umm, this chapter?**

**?: Really?**

**Yes**

**?: YEAH!**

**(Why did I include her again?)**

* * *

**Chapter six: Cave Calamity**

* * *

A lot has happened since our heroes' encounters in Ilex Forest. Cubone decided to join Lyra, giving the girl her 5th Pokemon. Lyra's exposure therapy was slowly working as the girl was now almost completely fine around Marina's Feraligatr. She still had a long way to go though, as Marina's Feraligatr was the ONLY large Pokemon Lyra had warmed up to thus far.

But instead of going to them, we are going to visit our other group. You know? The guys from chapter 3? Let's face it, you probably forgot...

...because I did too.

* * *

**Monday, July 14th, 2005, 8:01 am outside of Mt. Mortar**

It had been a few days since Todd had begun his Pokemon journey with Rudy, and he felt that things were going well so far. He had caught on with type advantages, strategies, and moves rather quickly with the help of his mentor. Todd was even thinking about participating in the Johto League and competing in next year's Silver Conference, but he hadn't fully made a decision yet.

Things were going well for Rudy as well, the fact that Todd was catching onto the basics of Pokemon training gave him some free time to do what he wanted. Best of all, Team Rocket hadn't shown up yet, so he could be lazy for the time being. Though recently, he got a call saying that Team Rocket were spotted in Mt. Mortar so he needed to go and investigate, without Todd knowing.

Todd had just woken up in his tent from a long night's rest, Rudy packed two tents so that each boy could have one to themselves. It was a rather rude awakening as he woke up to the sound of loud music being played. Furiously, he got dressed into day clothes and went out to see what the commotion was.

Rudy was practicing a dance routine with his Pokemon outside very early in the morning. Did I mention that Rudy was a really good dancer? No wonder girls are into him. Todd angrily stomped over, giving the older boy the evil eye, which didn't phase Rudy at all.

"Are you trying to look intimidating?" Rudy asked, "'Cause' you look like someone had given you plastic surgery in the wrong place."

"Shut up!" Todd yelled furiously, "You're going to wake up all of Johto with that music on!"

"And Kanto too." Rudy corrected Todd jokingly, "Have a little more patience, I haven't gotten to do one of these in days. Alright team! Let's keep grooving till we lose it!

"That sounded stupid, you should stop that." Todd said bluntly.

"And you're rude, so we're even." Rudy said.

Todd shook his head and headed back to his tent where he packed up all of his things. Rudy continued his routine for 15 more minutes, then he stopped and packed his things. Then Rudy cooked some sausage and eggs that he got from his bottomless backpack and ate breakfast with Todd. Around 8:43 AM, the two boys were completely packed and ready to head out.

The two boys began heading westward towards Ecruteak city (since they had already passed through Mahogany town a couple of days ago). On the way, they spotted a mountain with an opening to a cave entrance. Rudy grimaced when he saw that there was a sign near the entrance of the cave that said "Mt. Mortar".

Rudy knew he needed to go in, but he couldn't let Todd get suspicious, so he tried his best to make it so he could go in without Todd following.

"Uh Todd, can you wait out here for a bit? I need to go in there for a bit." Rudy tried to explain.

"Why dude? At least let me come with you." Todd countered.

"I would, but are lots of strong Pokemon in there that would take your Pokemon out instantly." Rudy said, which would ultimately be his downfall.

"Did you say STRONG Pokemon?" Todd asked.

"Yeah, and they'll be too much for you too han-" Rudy began.

"Let's go in! I want to get some strong Pokemon!" Todd exclaimed with confidence.

"What did I just say?" Rudy said.

"Pff, I'm practically unbeatable now, sure I've got more to learn, but I'm not going to lose to WILD Pokemon, that would be dumb."

"_Cocky much?_" Rudy thought to himself.

Rudy was reluctant, but he unfortunately gave in: "Alright, you can come, but stay close to me."

Todd rolled his eyes sarcastically, "Fine _**Dad**_."

Rudy stiffened for a second, "_You say that now._.." he thought before shaking his head and going inside the cave with Todd.

Before heading into the cave, Rudy produced two flashlights from his backpack and handed one to Todd and kept the other to himself. After that, the two boys walked inside. There were a few lanterns that they could use as light sources, but Rudy knew that not every section of the cave had those hung up.

Mt. Mortar cave was incredibly spacious, unlike your average everyday cave. The stone walls were brightly colored, and the pathways were surprisingly easy to navigate. It was hard to believe that the cave has had little to no human impact on it, aside from the hung up lanterns, everything in the cave was formed naturally. The odd thing was that there were not many Pokemon in the area, or at least strong ones, the population was mostly dominated by Zubat and Geodude.

"Hey dude, I thought you said there were strong Pokemon here." Todd said.

"They must be deeper in the cave." Rudy said to his friend, "Why do you need something that starts out strong anyway? Any Pokemon can become powerful with enough training, love, and care."

"Yeah, but I want to find a real showstopper, only they can be worthy of being MY Pokemon!" Todd said.

"You didn't listen to me at all..." Rudy said, completely dumbfounded by his younger friend.

Todd ignored his older friend and they continued walking through the damp cavern. There still weren't many Pokemon Todd considered to be "worthy" around, much to his disappointment. Rudy was even getting suspicious of where all of the Magmar and Golbat went off to.

"We must've picked the wrong day to come here." Rudy said, "Everything must be in the deeper sections of the cave."

"Should we go there then?" Todd asked.

"Might as well, unless you're too Torchic for it." Rudy teased.

"Nah bro, this strong trainer ain't scared of nothing." Todd countered.

As they continued exploring, there came a point where there was a fork in the path, the left path being lit by lanterns like the rest of the cave beforehand, and the right path wasn't lit at all. Deducing that the lack of light sources meant that the path led into the deeper sections of Mt. Mortar, both of the boys turned on their flashlights and started exploring.

Unlike past parts of the cave, this section was more maze-like with it's splitting passageways and lack of distinction between the different areas. Luckily though, there were arrows painted on the walls that all led to the exit in case they ever got lost.

But even in the deeper parts of the cave, there weren't any "Strong Pokemon" to be seen anywhere, which triggered Todd's impatience.

"Are you sure you weren't lying when you said there were strong Pokemon down here? These ones are too weak." Todd complained.

"Grow up! Every Pokemon can be strong if you bring out it's full potential, we've had this conversation a million times!" Rudy exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

Suddenly, the duo noticed a flickering light in the distance that neither individual could make out, but in Todd's mind, it was an awesome fire-type Pokemon.

"Cool! I'm gonna go catch whatever Pokemon that is!" Todd said running off quickly.

"WAIT UP! Ugh, that boy..." Rudy said shaking his head before running after the younger boy.

Unfortunately for Rudy, Todd had ran too far ahead of Rudy and the older boy couldn't see him any more. He tried calling him on his Pokegear, but there wasn't any service, because why would there be?

The two boys were now separated in the depths of Mt. Mortar.

* * *

**With Todd 10:28 AM**

After chasing the light for a while, he suddenly lost track of whatever it was. Confused, he searched around the area for any signs of it, but he wasn't having any luck. However, while he was looking for his missing Pokemon, he discovered a brightly colored egg with a red pigment on the top half and a yellow pigment on the bottom half, the nonlinear border between the two colors outlined the shape of a fire.

"Whoa! What a cool-looking egg!" Todd said as he got closer to the object to examine it more thoroughly.

Suddenly, a thought occurred him, "Does this egg have any parents? If so, why aren't they here?" He pondered this for a little bit until he heard a noise behind him.

The boy turned around quickly, and came face-to-face with a short, but not necessarily tiny creature, with fire-shaped patterns on it's body and a bill for it's mouth.

Todd got out his Pokedex and scanned the creature.

"_Magmar, the Spitfire Pokemon, and the evolved form of Magby. The fiery surface of this fire-type's body gives off a wavering, rippling glare that is similar to the Sun"_

Todd put his Pokedex away and took a better look at the creature, "Looks cool and strong, I'll catch it and make it my own! Totodile, come on out and use water gun!"

Totodile came out of it's ball and spit out a stream of water from it's mouth. The liquid hit the Magmar, but the fire-type didn't seem too bothered by the attack in spite of it being a super effective move.

The Spitfire Pokemon smirked and unleashed a Flamethrower attack on the Big Jaw Pokemon. But Todd was prepared for this and commanded Totodile to dodge the attack, causing the Flamethrower to hit the cave wall, extinguishing the flames.

"Now Totodile, use Water Gun again!" Todd ordered his water-type

Totodile once again shot a stream of water from it's mouth landing another super effective hit, but Magmar wasn't too bothered by it again.

"_I guess I'll have to keep landing hits until it's close to fainting, and make sure Totodile doesn't get hit as well." _Todd mused to himself before attacking again; "Use Leer to lower it's defenses, then use Water Gun again!"

Totodile quickly shot Magmar a malicious gaze, slightly discouraging the Spitfire Pokemon. Totodile tried to hit the fire-type with another Water Gun, but Magmar quickly moved out of the way and shot a Confuse Ray at the water-type. Before Todd could react, Totodile was hit and was now confused.

"Oh no! Snap out of it quick!" Todd panicked.

It was no use, Totodile's brain was practically screaming at it, making it difficult for the water-type to pay attention to it's surroundings. Using this to its advantage, the Magmar unleashed another powerful Flamethrower at the water-type.

"Totodile c'mon! Use Scratch!" Todd said hoping Totodile would hear him.

Miraculously, the Big Jaw Pokemon heard it's trainer and dodged the attack, then it jumped up and scratched the Spitfire Pokemon causing the fire-type to stumble backward before regaining it's footing.

"Now use Water Gun before it attacks again!" Todd commanded Totodie.

Totodile let loose another stream of water from it's mouth, but the fire-type reacted quickly and dodged the water-type move. Then it released a cloud of black smoke from it's mouth, lowering the visibility.

Todd frantically searched around the cave for any sign of Magmar, but to no avail, the cloud was too thick. Todd then heard a crashing sound and a creature crying out, which he identified as Totodile.

Just as the smoke was clearing up, Todd ordered the Big Jaw Pokemon, "Quick, try to find Magmar and use Water Gun!"

However, Totodile was head was still aching, and the water-type was unable to see make anything out. Along with that, the water-type also tripped on itself and fell to the ground, hurting itself in it's confusion.

Taking this opportunity, the Spitfire Pokémon's fist started crackling with electricity as it readied Thunder Punch.

"Totodile no!" Todd tried to call out to his starter.

The Magmar lowered itself to get on Totodile's level, then punched the Big Jaw Pokemon hard, sending it flying into the cave wall. Totodile then fell to the floor, a noticeable mark on the wall where Totodile landed.

Todd ran up to his starter and picked it up; "Totodile, are you okay?"

Totodile opened its eyes slightly, and gave Todd a thumbs up letting the boy know that he was fine. Todd sighed in relief, his Pokemon was okay, but it was definitely unable to battle.

Todd then faced the Magmar, who was giving the boy a hard stare, but wasn't doing anything. Todd found this odd, since wild Pokemon tend to attack if they are attacked, including humans that send out Pokemon to battle them. Normally, he would think that the Magmar would fire a flamethrower close to him as a way to say "Get off my lawn!" or something along those lines.

Todd was relieved by this however, he didn't have any other Pokemon to fight this beast. Looking at Totodile one last time, he decided to fish a Pokeball out of his backpack and try to catch Magmar anyway. He knew the chances were low, but it couldn't hurt to try.

Readying the spherical object, he tossed it at the fire-type, who made no effort to dodge the sphere. The Pokeball struck the top of Magmar's head and tried to catch it, but then it closed and fell to the ground.

"Wait... if it didn't even go in the ball, then that must mean tha-" Todd tried to say before he was interrupted.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing?" a female voice called out to him.

Todd turned to see a girl around his age running towards him with an angry expression on her face. "_Aw man, now I'm in for it."_ Todd thought to himself.

Magmar's expression lit up when it saw the young girl and ran up to greet her. The young girl threw her arms around the fire-type (without getting burned) and hugged it. "There you are! I was looking all over for you!" she said to the Spitfire Pokemon.

Then she released her arms from the fire-type and looked at Todd, who cringed when he was noticed.

"Alright, what did you do to Magmar? You better answer honestly too or you'll get it!" the girl threatened the photographer.

"I'm sorry! I thought Magmar was a wild Pokemon so I tried to catch it!" Todd answered, trying not to get killed in the process.

Oddly, that seemed to convince the girl, "Eh it's okay, as long as you didn't hurt him. Catching Pokemon that belong to a trainer is a mistake we've all made, including myself."

"Well, I'm still sorry. I'm kind of a new trainer." Todd admitted.

She cocked her head sideways in confusion, "Why on Earth are you in Mt. Mortar then?"

"To be honest, I'm not really sure, I guess my overconfidence just got to me." Todd said, clearly embarrassed.

The girl then walked up to Todd with her hand held out, "My name is Macy Jagers, pleasure to meet you."

Todd shook it, "Todd Snap, and this is Totodile." he said as Totodile waved its arms. The water type appeared to have recovered from its battle with Magmar.

Now that the girl was closer, Todd was able to make out her features. She had light brown hair styled into pigtails, and light-colored skin. She was an inch shorter than Todd and was probably a little younger too.

Todd then felt something brush up against his leg, curious, he looked down and saw a little orange Pokemon sniffing him. He took out his Pokedex to take a look.

"_Vulpix, the Fox Pokemon. As this fire-type develops, its single white tail gains color and splits into six. It is quite warm and cuddly._

"You can pet her, Vulpix would love it." Macy told the boy.

Todd reached down and softly pet Vulpix on it's back. "The Pokedex was right, Vulpix is warm." Todd observed, "Must be a fire-type thing."

Macy's eyes shifted past Todd, where she noticed the egg. She quickly ran over to the object and scooped it up into her arms, "Thank goodness it's okay! I thought something would have eaten it by now!"

"Is that your egg?" Todd asked.

"Kind of. My Magmar and Electivire had it together, and I'm trying to find a trainer to give it to."

"Well, I coul-" Todd tried to say.

"Not a chance." Macy interrupted, already knowing what he was going to say.

"Awe." Todd said in defeat. After a few seconds of silence Todd asked: "Hey, how did you get separated from Magmar and your egg?"

"I was exploring this Mt. Mortar, because I love caving and such. Then a Golbat took it out of my hands. Since Magmar was out of its Pokeball at the time, and it's the father, it ran after it and I fell behind."

Todd found this odd, "There wasn't anything nearby when I saw the egg, it was alone."

"That is strange, well, it could come back so we better go." Macy said.

"Right." Todd said, then he paused for a second.

"Something wrong?" Macy asked.

Todd then facepalmed, he had forgotten about Rudy! Focusing back on reality, he answered Macy's question: "Yeah, I was actually with someone down here, but I went to far ahead and we got separated!"

"That is a problem, we should go back to where the beginning of the maze part is, we'll have the highest chance of finding him there." Macy said.

The two started to run back towards the beginning of the maze with their Pokemon following them. Since Macy had explored the cave upon numerous occasions in the past, she knew the place inside-out. On the way, they heard a flapping noise coming around the corner, causing them to stop.

After waiting a bit, they saw the source of the noise, a group of Zubat and a Golbat that looked to be their leader. "That's the Golbat that took my egg!" Macy said.

"How do you know?" Todd asked.

"Intuition." Macy answered, causing Todd to roll his eyes.

The group of Bat Pokemon noticed them and halted, then the Golbat laid its eyes on the egg, clearly recognizing it.

"See?" Macy said.

"Shut up."

The Golbat turned to its comrades and made a series of noises for communication, then the Zubat, although blind, bared their teeth at the two trainers in aggression.

"Um Macy? I think we should go." Todd said, trying not to anger the Poison/Flying-type Pokemon.

"Magmar, you take the Zubat, Vulpix and I will take the Golbat." Macy commanded her two fire-types before turning to Todd: "Totodile got any fight left in it?"

Totodile looked at its trainer and nodded its head, "Yeah, Totodile wants to fight."

Macy tossed the boy a spray bottle filled with purple liquid, "That's a potion, use it to heal Totodile, then attack the Zubat with Magmar."

"Alright but wouldn't Magmar be a batter choice for facing the Golbat?"

Macy laughed, "Trust me, Vulpix could beat Magmar with her eyes closed."

Deciding not to question her further, Todd used the potion on Totodile, which healed a majority of its injuries, then Todd prepared to battle the swarm of Zubat with Magmar.

"Totodile, use Water Gun on the Zubat!" Todd commanded.

Totodile unleashed a stream of water, hitting multiple Zubat. After the attack, Totodile sneezed, indicating that it was about to learn a new move. Then it leaped up and sank its teeth into a nearby Zubat.

"Awesome! You learned Bite! Now lets keep attacking!"

Meanwhile, Macy was battling the Golbat with Vulpix. Golbat flapped its wings creating an Air Slash attack.

"Dodge it then use Flamethrower!" Macy commanded her fire-type.

The Fox Pokemon effortlessly leaped away and fired a powerful flamethrower from its mouth. Unfortunately, the Golbat noticed this and dodged the attack, in spite of its large size.

"Huh, so you're not going down easy eh?" Macy said to the Bat Pokemon, "Fine with me. Use Disable Vulpix!"

Vulpix used Disable on Golbat, which didn't hurt the Bat Pokemon, but instead took something away from it. Golbat tried to release another round of Air Slash attacks, but nothing came out.

Macy smirked, "Disable is a move that prevents the last move your opponent used from being used for a little bit."

The Golbat glared at her and instead fired a Confuse Ray at the fire-type.

"Use Confuse Ray as well!" Macy ordered.

The two beams collided with one another and dissipated.

"Now use Disable again!"

Now Golbat's Confuse Ray was also disabled for the time being, something that made the Bat Pokemon REALLY angry. Golbat swung its wings, forming a volley of golden stars headed straight toward Vulpix.

"Heh, use Flamethrower to destroy those stars, then use Extrasensory to finish it off!"

Vulpix released flames from its mouth and destroyed the Swift attack; then its eyes glowed blue as it started to concentrate. Golbat was preparing to attack Vulpix with a Crunch attack, but then an unseen force knocked into it, throwing Golbat off balance and into the cave floor, knocked out in one hit.

Seeing their leader taken out, the Zubat instantly fled the scene, not concerned for the Golbat's well being.

"Guess they weren't really loyal." Todd muttered to himself before turning to the brunette girl, "How did you take it out in one move?"

"Well, that's the kind of skill you get from someone who's competed in four leagues." Macy bragged.

Todd's jaw dropped to the floor, and probably farther, "FOUR LEAGUES?"

"Hehe yup."

"Hang on, Extrasensory is a psychic-type move correct? Well, since Golbat is a poison-type, and considering how you took it out with just one Extrasensory hitting, why didn't you use that move first?" Todd asked her.

"I could've taken it out in one shot, but what's the fun in that?" Macy explained as she bent down and sprayed a potion on the fallen Golbat.

Todd was confused by her actions, "Why are you healing it?"

"Golbat was just abandoned by the Zubat and was effortlessly beaten by yours truly. This potion will help it wake up quicker and therefore prevent it from being eaten by another larger Pokemon. I believe it deserves a second chance, even if it did want to eat my egg." Macy explained to be photographer.

Todd just stood in silence, trying to wrap his head around what Macy had told him.

Macy stood up and motioned Todd to follow her; "C'mon! Let's go find your friend!"

Todd just nodded and followed her, still absolutely dumbfounded by the younger trainer.

* * *

"Hey! What took you so long?"

It turns out that Macy was right, Rudy had retraced his steps and stayed at the beginning of the maze in case Todd had come there. The weird thing was that he was with police.

Todd approached his gym leader friend and gave him a quick man-hug, "Sorry about that bro, I just got excited."

"Hey, I'm just glad you're safe man." Rudy said releasing the younger boy. Then he turned his attention to Macy and held his hand out; "Hello, I'm Rudy Mitler, a friend of Snap here. And you are?"

"Macy Jagers." The brunette said, shaking the older boy's hand, not bothered by how he was almost a full foot taller than she was.

The older boy smiled then leaned down to whisper to the photographer; "So now you're making friends with other girls just so I won't tease you about Mahri? Interesting tactic Snap, but you can't fool me."

Todd's demeaner instantly changed as he yelled at his older friend out of embarrassment; "STOP IT!"

Rudy let out a laugh, while Macy just stared at the two boys in confusion.

Calming himself down, Todd remembered something that he needed to ask; "Hey Rudy? Why are the police here?"

"Uh, because I called them to look for you." Rudy said in an unsure tone. "_That was an obvious lie, but I can't let them know why they're really here._" Rudy thought to himself.

Todd shrugged and the trio began making their way out of the cave. While they were walking, Rudy thought back to what happened while he and Todd were separated.

* * *

_**Flashback**_

_Sighing to himself, Rudy walked through the maze in hopes of finding his friend, but to no avail. As he was walking, he came across what seemed to be the one-hundredth dead end by now._

_Frustrated, he started to walk away, but then he noticed something on the walls. Stopping, he shined his flashlight at it, there was nothing. Then he walked a few steps, not taking his eyes off of the wall; that was when he noticed irregular movement as he changed his perspective._

_Using his left hand, he reached to the cave wall and attempted to lean against it, but instead, his hand passed right through the surface! Rudy then decided to try and walk through the fake wall, which also worked._

_ Now that he was past the illusion, he checked his new surroundings. The room was made up of a steel alloy, and there was a door at the end of the room, which sported a red "R" on it._

_Panicking, Rudy left the room and went back into the cave. Taking out a Pokeball, he released his Alakazam that he planned to use to battle any grunts that might be inside._

_Then he took out his Pokegear and dialed 911, while you couldn't dial people normally in a cave system, emergency broadcasts could be heard due to amplified technology being used at those facilities. He told the police who and where he was and also the situation, he also informed them to only send two officers down with him and the rest to guard the outside of the cave._

_He waited for a little bit and then two officers came down with a Growlithe each as their Pokemon. Rudy led them through the fake wall and into the room and they quickly got into position._

_"Alright Alakazam, I'm going to count to 3, then I want you to blast the door open with your psychic powers." Rudy told his faithful psychic-type. Alakazam nodded and waited for his trainer's command. "One... two... three!" Alakazam released a surge of psychic energy and blasted the door open. _

_The officers went in first with their Growlithe; "Everyone freeze!"_

_Inside were around five grunts, along with an oddly dressed Rocket member who had yellow highlights on his Rocket uniform. Rudy instantly realized that this man was a Rocket Executive, a high-ranking member of the team, meaning that Team Rocket would be way easier to take down if he was captured._

_The five grunts quickly put their hands in the air in order to not get attacked, but the executive just laughed. Keeping his guard up, Rudy threatened to attack the man or he would attack; "Sir, I need you to put your hands in the air."_

_The man smirked, "This 'sir' has a name, and it's Proton, you'll remember it because it's the last name you'll ever here. Koffing, use Self-destruct!"_

_Somehow, Rudy and the policemen didn't notice a Koffing in the room with them. The Poison Gas Pokemon started to glow white as it prepared Self-destruct._

_"Everyone! Get back into the cave!" Rudy shouted. Since they were close to the door, Rudy and the policemen had no trouble escaping, but the Rocket grunts weren't so lucky; Proton just smirked and did nothing._

_"BOOM!"_

_The Koffing released a huge amount of energy inside the room, shaking the cave along with it. Fortunately, Mt. Mortar was a stable cave, so the explosion didn't cause a cave-in. Rudy and the officers went back in to observe the damage, which was absolutely catastrophic._

_ Two of the Rocket Grunts were far enough from the explosion to be okay, only a few second-degree burns here and there. Two more grunts were passed out on the floor with second degree burns and a few third-degree burns as well, the two officers checked their pulse and they were still alive, thankfully. The last grunt however, was in the center of the explosion, he was covered in third-degree burns, there was no way he could be alive. The Koffing was also passed out on the floor from the release of so much energy._

_Proton was no where to be seen._

_The officers called for backup and arrested the two conscious Rocket grunts, they were too shocked at what Proton had done to put up a fight. _

_Other officers came down and carried out the two seriously injured grunts on stretchers, while the dead one was put into a body bag so that he could be buried, he may have done bad things, but he deserved a proper burial._

_Later the ambulance came and rushed to the hospital in order to treat the injured grunts. By the time the police were beginning to leave, Todd showed up with this girl he had never seen before._

* * *

**End of flashback**

After they exited the cave, Macy asked the two trainers an important question; "Can I travel with you guys?"

Todd looked at Rudy, who cringed slightly, he didn't want to put any more lives in danger because of his job, but once he learned about her skill, he decided that it was okay because he knew she could probably defend herself.

"Okay sure, but why?" Rudy asked.

"Well..." Macy began, looking at Todd, "I feel like someone could use the help in training."

"Um, okay?" Todd said, clearly confused.

"Oh and speaking of which." Macy said, fishing something out of her bag, "I want you to have Magmar's egg."

Todd was in absolute shock when he heard this, "You want ME to take care of this egg?"

Macy giggled at him, "You could use the experience, and I don't think I trust Rudy."

"Heyyy…" The older boy whined.

Macy ignored him, "So?"

Todd thought about it before accepting the egg, "Alright, I'll do it!"

"Awesome, let me know if you have any questions, I'll answer them."

The group traveled for the rest of the day until they set up camp for the night. Macy had a tent on her because she was traveling around as well before meeting Todd and Rudy. At around 10:00 PM, the two younger trainers had already gone to sleep, but the gym leader stayed awake. Rudy kept thinking back to Proton and his lack of remorse, even the Team Rocket grunts seemed to be surprised by his actions, he had never met anyone so cruel.

Rudy clenched his fist, "I'm going to find you Proton, and I'll put a stop to you and Team Rocket, whatever it takes."

* * *

**Trainer Profile: Macy Jagers**

**Age: 15**

**Hometown: Mahogany Town, Johto**

**Birthday: October 11th 1989**

** Height: 5'03''**

**Blood type: AB**

**Eye color: Blue-green**

**Hair color: Light brown**

**Trainer class: Pokemon Battler**

**Secondary class: Pokemon Trainer**

**Other hobbies: Jogging, exploring caves, overreacting to the smallest things**

**Notable achievements:**

**2000 Silver Conference - Top 48**

**2001 Indigo League - Top 8**

**2002 Silver Conference - Runner up**

**2004 Ever Grande Conference - Runner up**

**Special Condition: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokemon (On hand)**

**-Typhlosion(F)**

**-Electivire(F)**

**-Vulpix(F)**

**-Magmar(M)**

**-Rapidash(M)**

**-Medicham(F)**

**Pokemon(In rotation)**

**-Magcargo(F)**

**-Starmie(Genderless)**

* * *

**Welp, that got dark, didn't think I'd have a death this early, but alas.**

**Please make sure to review! I want your opinion on this story, just please give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, because anything else won't help me become a better writer for this story.**

**Aight imma head out**


	7. Chapter 7: A Rival?

**Welcome Back!**

* * *

**Chapter 7: A Rival?**

* * *

**4 days later, Friday, July 18th, 2005, 6:01 am with everyone still asleep except for one**

It's early in the morning, and most of everyone was sleeping peacefully, dreaming of who-knows-what. However, their valuable sleep was soon interrupted by a blaring horn.

"WAKE UP CALL!"

Jimmy, along with everyone else woke up with a start. He looked outside and saw the person who he should have expected to see, Vincent. The brown-haired boy was sporting his traditional evil smile, probably thinking about how awesome he thinks he is, even though he is horribly mistaken. Eventually, both Jimmy and Khoury were dressed and they stepped outside to confront the boy they were unfortunately friends with. When they got there, Vincent gave them a confident smirk, "Well, seems like you guys slept well."

Jimmy rolled his eyes at him, which he's probably done over a thousand times in his life thanks to Vincent, "Yeah, really good, thanks for the wonderfully pleasant awakening."

Khoury rolled his eyes as well, even though he had met Vincent just ten days ago, he could tell that he was going to make the journey feel longer than it would be. He glared at the older boy, "At this rate, you'll give everyone insomnia over fear of falling into another one of your stupid pranks."

Vincent scoffed, "Well Casey and Marina did it to me and Jimmy that one morning, I was just getting payback, sorry you two had to get involved."

Khoury shook his head, "Well, something I learned from traveling with Lyra is to never wake her up suddenly."

Judging by Khoury's tone, Vincent didn't want to know any details. He fearfully turned around to see if the female brunette was anywhere near him; thankfully for him, only Casey and Marina were there.

"Um, good morning Marina, Casey. Is Lyra awake?" Vincent asked the two female trainers.

Just then, the sharp feeling of pain presented itself on Vincent's head, causing the prankster to clutch his head out of surprise.

Angry from being awaken so early, Lyra had whacked Vincent on his head with a book. Where did the book come from? Who knows. How did Lyra manage to hit Vincent without him seeing her? Who knows.

Lyra gave the older boy a glare; "Wake me up like that again, you answer to the book. Got it?"

"Well, good morning to you too." Vincent said sarcastically, earning himself another whack on the head.

Everyone else laughed at his predicament, but they were soon shut up when Lyra turned to them with the same glare; "That goes for all ya'll."

Calming down, Lyra returned to her usual self, "So, what do we have on the schedule today?"

Jimmy checked his PokeNav, which is basically like a GPS and an iPhone put together. He noticed that they were close to Goldenrod city, but it had a red "WARNING" icon next to it. Puzzled, Jimmy checked for more info on the location. After a bit of reading, he was shocked to learn that Goldenrod had been attacked by Team Rocket a few days ago. Apparently, the gym leader Whitney and a few other local trainers managed to hold them off for a time, but they were unsuccessful, and most of the city was ransacked. Possessions, Pokemon, and anything of value were all stolen.

Jimmy relayed the information to the group, leaving them as confused as he was, "While they are thieves, it's not like Team Rocket to just lead a full-scale attack on a large city like Goldenrod, why would they do that?" Khoury asked.

"They could be doing it for attention." Casey mused, "Perhaps to get people to fear them. Hey Jimmy, check Team Rocket's criminal status."

Jimmy nodded and looked up the criminal threat levels, an website made for the police to use to organize criminal priority, though, it was open for the public to use, but not edit. Jimmy clicked on the "Organizations" tab and scrolled through the options.

_Criminal organization threat levels_

_Team Aqua \- Completely reformed as a ocean preservation organization. No longer engaged in criminal activities. Works alongside Team Magma_

_Leader: Shelly Lanton_

_Based in: Hoenn_

_Threat level: Very low_

_Team Magma \- Completely reformed as a land preservation organization. No longer engaged in criminal activities. Works alongside Team Aqua_

_Leader: Tabitha Carrigan_

_Based in: Hoenn_

_Threat level: Very low_

_Team Galactic \- Completely reformed as a space research organization. No longer engaged in criminal activities._

_Leader: Charon Silverstein_

_Based in: Sinnoh_

_Threat level: Very low_

_Team Plasma: Used to be a huge criminal organization. Ever since its former leader and top scientist were arrested, its relevance has gone down. They still engage in criminal activities._

_Leader: No data available_

_Based in: Unova_

_Threat level: Medium-low_

_Team Flare: Used to be a huge criminal organization. Though, it's been completely disbanded ever since their leader went missing._

_Leader: Lysandre E__xcandescunt __(formerly)_

_Based in: Kalos_

_Threat level: -_

_Team Skull: A group of organized delinquents that go around causing trouble._

_Leader: Guzma Maltby_

_Based in: Alola_

_Threat level: Low_

_Team Rocket: A group of criminals seeking power. Were relatively quiet until recently when they started to launch large attacks on big cities._

_Leader: Giovanni Terram(This is old information so it could be incorrect)_

_Based in: Kanto and Johto_

_Threat level: High_

"Yeah, they changed the threat level to 'high'." Jimmy said, "That means that people from all over the region are advised to keep some decent protection in their homes."

"We should make sure to contact our parents about this so that they know." Marina suggested.

Jimmy nodded in approval, "Good idea, let's do that, then eat breakfast." Then he turned to Casey, "It's your turn to make us some food."

Casey nodded, "If you insist. Prepare for trouble, because you all will lose your taste buds after tasting my horrid cooking."

"And make it double, 'cause I ain't waiting for bad food." Vincent mumbled.

Everyone quickly dialed their parents and informed them on the situation. Lyra's mother requested for her daughter to come back to New Bark where it would be safer, but the brunette assured her that she would be fine with the others. After everyone was done, Casey made breakfast. Forty-five minutes later, the group had finished breakfast and had packed up all of their things and started their trek to Goldenrod city. Around 8:30 AM, the group had reached their destination.

For a place that had been recently attacked, the city was looking decent. A few of the stores were closed, probably from being robbed; and there was debris in a lot of places. In spite of all that, it seemed the city's inhabitants were doing fine. The group also noticed a few construction workers rebuilding damaged buildings, there was even a group of teens clearing the debris so that cars could access the roads easier. Jimmy was curious about this group and separated himself from his friends temporarily to talk to them.

Jimmy started walking up to them to get a closer look at their work, a teenage girl noticed him and approached the boy.

"Hello, may I help you?" she said.

Jimmy acknowledged her, "Hello, may I ask what you are doing?"

She smiled, "I'm glad you asked, we are helping remove debris off the road so that people can get around the town. It's a service project that our church is doing, so that we can help make people's day a little bit better."

Jimmy nodded and looked at the work they were doing, lots of teens were moving debris away from the road so that cars could get by. There were a few sharp objects on the road, which were handled by older people.

Jimmy's eyes then wandered over to a team of 4 teens crowded around a rock trying to lift it. At first, Jimmy was confused by this, since the rock was already off of the road. Then, after they succeed in lifting the rock, a tiny wounded creature was now visible underneath where the rock was. The 18-year-old identified the Pokemon as Shuckle, a tiny creature that lives inside a hard shell, this particular Shuckle's shell seemed deformed due to the weight of the rock, however.

After the stone was off the rock/bug-type, another teen scooped up the tiny creature in his arms and rushed it to the nearest Pokemon Center.

"If it weren't for them, that Shuckle may not have lived much longer." the girl explained, "Though their efforts were life-changing to the Shuckle, even some of the smallest acts of kindness can brighten somebody's day."

Jimmy nodded, seeing the truth in that.

"Interested in joining us?" the girl asked.

"I would, but I have to join back up with my friends, we have some important business to attend to here." Jimmy explained.

The girl nodded, understanding, "I see, thanks for stopping by."

The two bid their farewells and Jimmy ran back to join his friends, who were wondering where he was. Soon, they noticed him and greeted him.

"Would have been nice if you told us you were going to ditch us, I didn't even get to make you a farewell card." Vincent said to the boy.

"Good thing too, since your handwriting is more atrocious than a Gyrados. That's saying something considering Gyrados is literally the 'Atrocious Pokemon'." Jimmy answered smugly.

"Oh snap!" Casey shouted.

"No one asked for your opinion Williams." Vincent said sarcastically.

"Alright, alright, let's go find Whitney. If anyone here has any leads to Team Rocket, it's her." Marina proposed.

Everyone agreed and started walking to the Goldenrod gym, which was only a few blocks away. Everyone except Khoury and Casey didn't have the best memories of the gym itself. At the time, Whitney was very difficult to defeat, mainly because of her infamous Miltank. It took the trainers of the group at least 2-3 attempts to beat her.

After they walked in, they saw a young trainer battling Whitney, so the group respectfully waited in the stands until the battle was finished. As they had expected, Whitney dominated the match.

"Aw man..." the trainer said disappointed.

Whitney returned her Miltank to its Pokeball and walked up to the young trainer, "Hey, good match; train hard, and maybe you'll defeat me."

The trainer smiled at her, "Thanks, we'll make sure to work hard and beat you the next time."

The young trainer then walked out of the gym and the group walked up to the pink-haired gym leader. Whitney didn't recognize them as she had met way too many challengers to remember them all. "Hello, welcome to the Goldenrod City Gym. Are you all here for a gym battle?" she asked them.

"Most of us have already battled you, and those who didn't weren't interested in collecting badges." Jimmy explained, "I'm Jimmy, we are actually here because we need your help."

Whitney nodded, understanding, "Ah I see, what do you think I could assist you all on?"

"My friends and I are putting together a team of people who want to stop Team Rocket's crimes. We know an organization of that size solely built on committing crimes can be very dangerous. I know that you have seen that firsthand Whitney." Jimmy explained .

Whitney nodded solemnly, "Yes, being unable to defend my home city was one of the most devastating moments of my life."

Marina spoke next: "I can't say I know how you feel, none of us can. Could you perhaps explain it to us?"

Whitney gave the Bluenette a smile, "I appreciate your concern, but I'm alright honestly. I got over the feeling a couple of days ago."

"Ah, that's good to hear." Marina said.

"Anyway, we have two questions for you." Jimmy said to the woman.

"Alright, give 'em to me." the gym leader responded.

"First off, do you have any leads to where Team Rocket could have gone after the attack?" Jimmy asked.

Whitney pondered the question for a moment before responding; "Kind of, I've spotted a few on the north side of the city while taking strolls, but they always left in a hurry before I could confront them. For a major threat to the region, they aren't very good at hiding."

The boy nodded, "That's good to know, and we should be thankful that they aren't better at Hide and Seek."

Jimmy's joke earned a chuckle from Vincent.

"Okay second question." Jimmy began, "Would you be interested in being a part of our team? I know you have gym leader duties so you wouldn't travel around with us; but you would contact us about Team Rocket sightings as well as helping us out whenever you can."

"Yeah, I really think I'd like that." Whitney said, "Johto's not going down without a fight, and I want to be a part of it."

"Great, Welcome aboard! Let's exchange numbers and then I'll give you everyone else's contact information so that we can keep each other posted." Jimmy said.

While they were exchanging contacts, Lyra piped up; "Doesn't she have to take the entrance exam like me and Khoury?"

Khoury answered his childhood friend, "Whitney's a gym leader who is known for her incredible skill in battling. We didn't have much background information Jimmy could go off of, so he and Marina had to test us."

"That's exactly right Khoury." Marina confirmed.

Jimmy had successfully exchanged information with Whitney and sent the contacts of his other team members to her. After a getting to know the rest of the team, Whitney spoke up; "Do you think I should contact the other gym leaders about your team?"

"Please do, we need as much help as we can get." Casey answered her.

"Okay, but I can't get in touch with all of them, Mahogany Town and Blackthorn City have new gym leaders and I don't have a way to contact them yet." Whitney said.

Jimmy shifted his head sideways in confusion, "I know that Blackthorn City has a new gym leader ever since Clair became champion, but Mahogany Town has a new gym leader? What happened to Pryce?"

Whitney's gaze dropped a little in sadness, "Pryce... passed away a few months ago. The new gym leader is his grandson."

Silence filled the room, then Vincent spoke up, "I had no idea that Pryce died. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, he was getting old, and he just couldn't go on anymore." Whitney said solemnly. "He lived a very long life though, and he only started shutting down a few weeks before he passed; Pryce isn't the kind of person who would want to be in that kind of state for years. I can safely say that he truly lived his life to the fullest, helping others in need, inspiring young trainers, and never losing his battling spirit."

"Yes... it's quite shocking to think that Pryce is really gone; he looked like he was in great shape when I battled him, but that was years ago." Jimmy said.

"Do you know what his grandson is like?" Lyra asked.

"Only a little, but I know enough to know how I feel about him. Alias, Pryce's grandson isn't the kindest individual. He came off as extremely rude and impatient when I first met him. It's actually shocking to think he's related to Pryce considering how different they are. The only similarity between the two is that they both use Ice-type Pokemon." Whitney commented on Mahogany Town's new gym leader.

"Well he doesn't sound like a pleasant person, he should fix his attitude!" Casey said.

Many of the others nodded an agreement, but Marina shook her head, "I agree with you Casey, but we must also recognize that we have no idea why Alias acts that way. Maybe Alias didn't have an easy life, or maybe his grandfather's death had a huge mental impact on him. Even if he does have irrational behavior, we should be mindful that he is a human being, who goes through hardships like the rest of us."

"Ah yes, that is true Marina. We shouldn't be so hard on him for having behavior; though, that doesn't mean he should try and fix it. I would know, having been there myself." Whitney said.

Jimmy and his two childhood friends nodded in agreement. Back in their early trainer days, they had faced Whitney when she was the new gym leader of Goldenrod City. But when they had beaten her, she threw a _serious_ temper tantrum, which is crazy considering that she was older than them. Though, it seemed that her attitude had changed since then, especially in Lyra's case where she battled Whitney after the gym leader changed her irrational behavior.

"Well, then I guess this Alias person will be the first gym leader I battle in a while since I'm saving Jasmine until I feel that I am ready to take her on." Lyra said thoughtfully.

There's something I don't quite get though." Casey said to Lyra, "If Jasmine's Steelix is going to trigger a negative response from you, couldn't you ask her to switch to a different team?"

"That's not how it works Casey." Whitney spoke up, "Part of beating a gym leader is defeating their signature Pokemon in the battle. If a challenger beats the leader in a battle but the signature Pokemon wasn't used on the gym leader's side, the victory does not warrant them a badge. For example, my signature Pokemon is Miltank, while Jasmine's is Steelix."

"That's why I want to battle Jasmine at the absolute latest so that I will be the most prepared." Lyra explained.

"'Ah, thanks for clearing that up you two." Casey said, now understanding.

Whitney was a little confused from the exchange and asked what they were talking about. Lyra explained her condition to the woman so that she knew what was up.

"You have quite an ambitious goal for the limitations you have." Whitney said to the younger girl; "I do wish you luck in overcoming your weakness though, in spite of how hard it may be."

After a few more minutes of discussing, Jimmy and his friends left the gym to go check out the locations of the Team Rocket sightings; and also because another trainer walked in to challenge Whitney to a battle.

"Whitney's changed a lot since the last time I saw her." Vincent mused, breaking the silence.

"No kidding, I'm glad too." Marina responded.

"Hey, I know it's still a long way off, but do you have an idea on what Pokemon you'll use against Alias?" Khoury asked his childhood friend.

"Cubone and Bayleef are out of the question since they are both weak to ice; since gym battles are usually 3 on 3, I think the rest of my team will do fine against him, after all, Blitzle does know Flame Charge." Lyra responded.

"That makes sense, but most gym leaders have methods to counter their weaknesses, so you must be prepared for that." Vincent spoke up.

"I know that, I have five badges anyway." Lyra stated.

The group reached the destination and started looking around for clues, but nothing of interest came up. So instead of looking for Team Rocket, Jimmy suggested that they join a few of the volunteer groups that he saw before they talked to Whitney. Jimmy stated that they shouldn't only fight Team Rocket to stop them, but they should also help people who had been affected by the evil organization. Everyone agreed with the boy's proposition and went off to do some service.

* * *

**3 hours later, it's now 12:01 PM with everyone at the edge of the city**

After a while of service, the group met up at the city exit, which is connected to a path that would lead to Ecruteak City. The team had also let out a few a few of their Pokemon to help them work beforehand and had not returned them to their Pokeballs yet. They wanted to see if there were any more leads to Team Rocket before they decided on what to do for the rest of the day.

The team looked around for a little bit, but like before, they didn't find anything of use to them. It seemed that they had the rest of the day to themselves.

Suddenly, Lyra's Marill's ears perked up as if it had heard something. This action did not go unnoticed by Lyra.

"Something the matter Marill?" Lyra asked her faithful Water-type.

The Aqua Mouse Pokemon pointed its tiny arm in the direction of an alleyway.

"Huh, a dark alleyway, seems pretty cliche." Casey commented.

**Jeez, you guys have ****standards.**

"HEY! You can't just make comments whenever you want Penguinn! Now do 100 Russian push-ups." Vincent yelled.

"Anyway, should we go and see what Marill is so worked up about?" Marina suggested.

"I guess we should." Lyra responded.

The group cautiously entered the alleyway to see if they could find anything. As far as alleyways go, this one didn't look as bad as it could be. There weren't many Rattata roaming around, and the dumpster wasn't overflowing at all. The place wasn't exactly sanitary, but it was about as clean as a city alleyway could get.

"Do you think Team Rocket are down here?" Casey asked to no one in particular.

"If they are, it'd be weird if the police haven't checked this place yet. A dark alleyway would probably be the first place you'd look for criminals." Jimmy responded.

"Hey I've been meaning to ask. Where did you go off to when you left us earlier Jimmy?" Lyra asked.

"I saw a group of people picking debris off the road, and I wanted to know who they were." Jimmy explained, "I talked to this girl who's apart of their group about it; she said that members of a church she's a part of were doing a service project so that people could get across the road."

"Anything else?" Lyra asked.

"Nope, I just wanted to know what they were trying to accomplish." Jimmy answered.

"I admire those people who would put aside part of their free time just to help others." Marina said, giving her input, "It makes me happy to know that we have people like that in a society where we hardly do anything ourselves."

"Yep, I feel the same way." Jimmy agreed.

Suddenly, a feminine yelp was heard from around the corner. Instantly raising their awareness, the group started running to see what the commotion was about. When they rounded the corner of the alleyway, they saw three figures. One of them was a girl who appeared to be around their age, while the other two were adults with familiar black uniforms. In front of the two adults were an Arbok and a Weezing

"Give me back Meowth!" the girl said in distress.

"No, there's no way we could give up a Pokemon that is impossible to find in this region." the grunt laughed. He was holding a bag over his shoulder that appeared to be wriggling, maybe with the girl's Meowth inside.

"Hey, let's go help her out!" Lyra suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement and ran over to the scene before them.

The girl angrily took out a Pokeball and threw it, revealing a Pokemon no one else in the area had seen before, not even Lyra and Khoury who visited regions like Sinnoh and Unova.

The creature stood on 4 legs and had a yellow and grey color scheme. It only stood about 3 feet tall, but Khoury could tell it was very well-raised. Based on its colors, the group guessed that it was an electric-type.

The girl issued a command, "Boltund, Use Psychic Fangs on Weezing!"

The creature obeyed and its fangs turned a light purple color and it raced towards the poison-type at a very fast speed.

"Use Smog." the grunt said plainly.

"Arbok, use Earthquake." the other grunt commanded.

The Poison Gas Pokemon levitated upward to avoid Boltund's Psychic Fangs and released gas from the openings in its body. The gas washed over the Dog Pokemon, damaging it with its poisonous content. Next, the Arbok focused its power and ground began to rumble, causing parts of the ground to jut out at Boltund, doing super effective damage. The Dog Pokemon ran back to the front of its trainer, far from fainting, but still damaged from the two attacks.

"Just give it up girl, each of us have six Pokemon, you won't be able to take both of us out." The grunt with the Weezing belittled the girl.

"Maybe not, but we can." a voice said behind Boltund's trainer.

The girl turned around to see the group with their Pokemon out, "What did you say about her being outnumbered?" Jimmy taunted the two grunts.

The Team Rocket agents took one look at the Pokemon in front of them and instantly tried to flee, without another word.

"Well, they aren't stupid enough to stick around after that." Vincent mumbled.

"Hey! They still have Meowth!" The girl said.

The two grunts were still running when a Pokemon instantly appeared in front of them. It was Marina's Xatu, who had just used Teleport.

Reacting quickly, one of the grunts commanded his Arbok to use Crunch on the Mystic Pokemon, aiming for the super effective hit.

"Fly up then use Psychic!" Marina ordered.

Arbok bared its fangs and lunged toward the psychic/flying-type, but the latter took flight to dodge. Xatu's eyes glowed blue, and then picked up the two Team Rocket Pokemon with its psychic powers; then it smashed them on the paved ground. The two Pokemon got up, damaged from the super effective attack, but still able to fight.

"You should just give up, there are seven of us and only two of you." Vincent said to them in an intimidating voice.

Jimmy nodded, "I suggest you let go of this girl's Meowth if you want to leave. We'll leave you alone if you do."

The grunts stood there for a moment, then the one holding the bag carelessly tossed it to them and they both ran off.

"You're just going to let them go?" The girl asked confused.

"Nope." Jimmy said pointing to where the grunts were running. The two Rocket members rounded the corner of the alley, a few seconds passed then blue and red lights started flashing, accompanied by the sound of police sirens.

"Those guys are going to jail." Khoury said.

"Huh?" The girl said, even more confused.

"Before we showed ourselves, Khoury called the police so that they couldn't escape." Lyra explained; "He's thinks ahead."

Casey picked up the bag that contained the girl's Meowth and opened it, and got quite a shock.

The Pokemon inside the bag looked like a Meowth, but it looked drastically different at the same time. Instead of thin, white fur, this creature had thick, grey fur. It's eyes were huge, and were colored orange instead of white. The last major difference was that this Meowth's charm on its head was dark grey in color instead of a bright gold. To sum it up, it was unlike any Meowth she had ever seen.

"Uh... about your Meowth..." Casey began.

"Oh that's right, this Meowth would look different to you guys. Me and my Meowth are both from the Galar region, which is far away from Johto." the girl explained to the group.

The Meowth caught sight of its trainer and instantly ran toward her, hugging the girl's leg when it got smiled at her Pokemon and picked it up in her arms; "I'm glad your okay Meowth."

"Meowth." The Scratch Cat Pokemon replied.

The Meowth then crawled over the girl and hung on to the girl's back, which the latter didn't seem to mind. "Meowth are very different in my home region than they are in yours, they battle differently, and they have different habits." the girl explained to them.

"Ah I see." Casey said, now understanding the situation a little better. "Uh, we haven't caught your name yet." Casey said.

"Oh sorry, my name is Alexis, I'm a Pokemon trainer from the Galar region." the girl replied.

"Casey, me and everyone else here are native to Johto." the purple-haired girl introduced herself.

"So what brings you to Johto Alexis? I'm Lyra by the way." the Brunette said introducing herself.

"I'm here to compete in the Pokemon League since I didn't do so well in the Galar Pokemon League." Alexis explained.

"So you're competing in the Pokemon League? Same here!" Lyra said.

"Wow, that's really cool; that would make us rivals then! How many badges do you have?" Alexis asked Lyra.

"Only five, I'm going to Mahogany Town for the sixth one. You?" Lyra answered.

"Already got them all."

"Wow, that makes you quite a few steps ahead of me, considering you've already competed in the Galar Pokemon League." Lyra said.

"Well, you never know, want to have a Pokemon battle to see?" Alexis said, itching for a battle.

"Would I? Alright go-" Lyra said before Khoury caught her arm.

"Do you really want to battle in the middle of a cramped alleyway Lyra?" he said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Oh right..." Lyra said, embarrassed by her competitive nature.

The group of teens left the alleyway and headed to the Pokemon Center so that Alexis's Boltund could be healed from Team Rocket's attacks; Alexis also wanted to make sure Meowth wasn't experiencing any type of mental trauma after being quite literally stuffed into a bag, better safe than sorry.

After Boltund's state was recovered and Meowth was confirmed to have suffered from no mental issues, the group headed out to a nearby battlefield so that Lyra and Alexis could have their battle.

Jimmy offered to referee the battle; "This will be a one-on-one Pokemon battle between trainer Lyra and trainer Alexis! Trainers, send out your Pokemon!"

"Bayleef, battle time!" Lyra sent out her starter Pokemon.

Lyra's Pokeball revealed a yellow dinosaur-like creature with a leaf attached to its head. It also has green petal-like protrusions attached it its neck.

"Time to shine Meowth!" Alexis released her Meowth from its Pokeball.

The odd-looking Meowth revealed itself and prepared to battle.

"Battle... begin!" Jimmy announced.

Lyra analyzed her opponents so that she could formulate a strategy; "_Meowth's a normal-type, so only fighting-type moves will be super effective against it, Meowth is also immune to ghost-type attacks as well. Bayleef doesn't know any moves of either type, so any of my attacks will do fine against it."_

"Use Magical Leaf!" Lyra commanded Leaf Pokemon.

Bayleef focused its energy and created colorful leaves that sped towards the Scratch Cat Pokemon.

Alexis didn't bother to tell Meowth to dodge since the Magical Leaf would just home in on it until they hit. Instead, she opted for a different strategy; "Use Metal Claw to cut those leaves!"

Meowth's claws hardened as it held it's arms in front of it. Then it slashed the grass-type attack with its Metal Claws.

"Now attack!" Alexis ordered.

Still using Metal Claw, Meowth raced towards the Grass-type and slashed it with the Steel-type move, damaging the Leaf Pokemon.

Meanwhile, Khoury appeared to be bothered by something, noticing his expression, Casey turned to him; "Something the matter?"

"I don't think Meowth should be able to learn Metal Claw, I'm not entirely sure though, but I've never seen a Meowth use that move." Khoury answered.

"Hmmm... maybe it has something to do with the fact that this isn't a Meowth we are familiar with; maybe this variant can learn different moves from it's Kantonian version." Casey mused

"You might be onto something Casey, but let's just watch the battle now." Khoury answered.

"Now that it's close, use Poison Powder! Then use Magical Leaf" Lyra commanded Bayleef.

Bayleef's petals sprayed a purple gas onto Meowth, then created another cluster of leaves to fire at the Scratch Cat Pokemon.

Both attacks hit Meowth, causing it to fall backward from the impact. But surprisingly, it stood up, not appearing particularly damaged by the two attacks.

Lyra was shocked by Meowth's endurance, the experience from competing in the Pokemon League must have made it like that. However, Lyra wasn't too concerned, she knew that the poison would help her win the battle.

"Use Giga Drain now!" Lyra ordered.

Bayleef's reached into the ground and they attempted to grab Meowth from under.

"Jump up and use Throat Chop!" Alexis called out to her partner.

As the vines were about to grab the Scratch Cat Pokemon, the latter jumped up and readied it's hand.

"Use Reflect to protect yourself!" Lyra attempted to lessen the impact of the move.

A shiny barrier covered Bayleef's skin as Meowth made contact. The attack hurt Bayleef, but the impact was lessened thanks to Reflect.

By now, Lyra would have expected Meowth to show signs of being poisoned, but it still looked perfectly fine. "Why isn't the poison working?" Lyra accidentally wondered out loud.

Alexis smirked, "Even though I don't like offering information to my opponents, I'll say this: Pokemon from other regions can be very different, sometimes different enough to have a completely different type."

The group was completely shocked by this revelation, Pokemon in the same species but of a different type was unheard of where they live.

Lyra was in the most panic since she was trying to decipher what type it could be; "_My poison didn't work on it, so it could be a poison or steel-type. Whichever of the two it is doesn't matter, grass-type moves won't be very effective either way and it's immune to being poisoned._"

"Alright Meowth, use Hone Claws!" Alexis commanded her Pokemon.

Meowth slashed it's claws at nothing in particular, which would seem useless to someone unfamiliar with Pokemon battling, but Pokemon Battlers would know that Meowth would now be hitting a lot harder.

"Now use Shadow Claw!" Alexis said, aiming to use Meowth's attack boost.

"Dodge it! Then use Giga Drain again!" Lyra countered.

Ghastly energy surrounded Meowth's claws as the Scratch Cat Pokemon raced towards the Leaf Pokemon. But the grass-type quickly moved out of the way and dug it's vines into the ground again. This time, it was successful in latching onto Meowth's feet, leading the vines to start sucking Meowth's energy and transfering it to Bayleef.

"Use Metal Claw to cut free!" Alexis tried to get Meowth out of the situation.

Meowth sharped its claws and cut free of it's binds.

"Now attack Bayleef!" Alexis ordered.

Meowth leaped up and once again slashed Bayleef with its sharp claws. Bayleef's reflect was still active so the impact was lessened again.

"Now Shadow Claw!" Alexis said aiming for another hit.

Before Lyra could order Bayleef to dodge, the Scratch Cat Pokemon smashed its claws into Bayleef again, this time covered in ghastly energy. This time, the Reflect barrier gave way and Bayleef was now fully vunerable.

"Now finish it off with Throat Chop!" Alexis commanded the Scratch Cat Pokemon.

"Dodge it! Then use Magical Leaf!" Lyra countered.

Meowth leaped up and tried to hit Bayleef again, but the Leaf Pokemon moved out of the way and fired a barrage of multicolored leaves towards Meowth. The grass-type attack hit Meowth directly, dealing damage.

"Now use Reflect again!" Lyra ordered, hoping to defend against future attacks.

However, Alexis had other plans, "Use Hone Claws to increase your attack again!"

A colorful barrier once again surrounded Bayleef, while Meowth slashed it's claws again.

"Okay use Giga Drain!" Lyra commanded, trying to get Bayleef some extra energy to work with.

"Shadow Claw!" Alexis ordered Meowth.

Bayleef tried to use Giga Drain again, but Meowth leaped out of the way and slammed it's ghastly claws against Bayleef's hide.

"Magical Leaf!" Lyra commanded.

Bayleef released another round of colorful leaves, which all struck Meowth. Said Pokemon started breathing heavily, as if it was getting tired.

"_Okay, Meowth seems pretty worn out, but I don't think Bayleef can take another hit, I gotta think this through._"

Knowing that she needed to attack, Lyra tried to damage Meowth again; "Use Giga Drain again!"

"Dodge it!" Alexis said not wanting Meowth to take any more damage.

The very nimble Meowth jumped out of the way again.

"Now Throat Chop!" Alexis ordered.

Meowth leaped and smashed it's hand into Bayleef, diminishing the latter's Reflect defense.

"Metal Claw to finish it off!" Alexis said, intending to emerge victorious.

"Use Magical Leaf and don't stop!" Lyra panicked.

Bayleef released another barrage of colored leaves while Meowth's claws gained a metallic appearance again. As the leaves raced towards Meowth, the Scratch Cat Pokemon started slashing at all of them, rendering them useless. Soon, it was a battle of Meowth trying to get to Bayleef while the latter fired the leaves.

Even with the immense amount of leaves coming towards Meowth, the Scratch Cat Pokemon was so quick that it managed to cut through them all, and it started to slowly move towards Bayleef. When it was close enough, the Scratch Cat Pokemon leaped up and slashed Bayleef with Metal Claw, causing the grass-type to fall over, unable to continue.

"Bayleef is unable to continue! That means the victory goes to Meowth and Alexis!" Jimmy announced, declaring the battle over.

Lyra ran over to her fallen Bayleef and helped it stand up. Bayleef looked at it's trainer obvious shame.

"Don't feel so bad Bayleef, we were up against an unfamiliar opponent, I didn't know what I was doing either." Lyra said, trying to console her starter.

Bayleef still looked ashamed, but it gave its trainer a small smile.

"We'll get some training in later." Lyra said as she returned her partner to her Pokeball.

Meanwhile, Lyra noticed Alexis scoop Meowth up into her arms and let the Scratch Cat Pokemon cling onto her back like before. After that, she walked up to Lyra.

"Thanks for the battle Lyra, for someone who hasn't competed in a Pokemon league yet, you gave me a run for my money, I'm impressed." Alexis praised the Brunette.

"Yeah... but me and Bayleef still lost." Lyra said, feeling like she didn't deserve the praise.

"It really could have gone either way in the end there. Right Meowth?" Alexis said.

"Meow-Meowth!" the Scratch Cat Pokemon spoke its name, presumably answering with a 'yes'.

"Oh yeah, and now that we are outside of battle, I'll tell that Meowth's a Steel-type." Alexis said, now revealing Meowth's mysterious typing.

"I would have assumed so, the fact that it was immune to poison and it knew Metal Claw was pretty strong evidence." A voice came from the side of them.

The two girls turned to see the rest of the group, with Khoury presumably being the one who had spoken. "That was an intense battle you two." Khoury commented.

"Yeah, Lyra was a tough opponent, now I know who I need to watch out for in the Pokemon League." Alexis expressed her opinion on Lyra's battling skills.

"Well, she is a hard worker, she won't let her training fall behind." Khoury said.

"I would assume so, well, I gotta be somewhere, I'll see you all around! Especially you Lyra!" Alexis called out while running into another direction.

"You know, you could have asked her if she wanted to join us to stop Team Rocket." Vincent said to Jimmy.

"Ah shoot, that's right! Hey where did she go off to?" Jimmy panicked.

Everyone else laughed at his behavior, they could tell he was really serious about getting more people involved in their team.

"Well, we'll likely run into her again, so let's just wait until then." Marina commented.

"Yeah, I'll tell her about it then. Okay team, I'm not up for more traveling, so let's just crash in the Pokemon center for tonight. Unless the rest of you want to get some traveling done." Jimmy stated.

Everyone else was worn out from the day's events, so they agreed to go to the Pokemon Center to sleep.

* * *

**9:35 pm**

The boys and the girls had gone to different rooms to sleep in. All the boys had already fallen asleep, but two girls were still awake in the girls room.

"Hey Marina? You awake?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm awake Lyra. What's up?" Marina said, kind of tired.

"I just can't stop thinking about Alexis, or the concept of having a rival in particular." Lyra mused.

"Did you not have a rival when you first began your journey Lyra?" Marina asked.

"Nope, all my friends except Khoury left on their journeys before I did." Lyra answered, sounding saddened by the fact.

"Well, it's good to have a rival for almost any goal, they push you to work harder and you push them to work harder." Marina said.

"Yeah, that's true. Did you have a rival when you were first doing Pokemon contests?" Lyra asked, wondering if Marina had any experience with rivals.

Marina hesitated for a moment, as if it was a touchy subject for her, but she spoke anyway; "Just one, her name is Leslie, she's a lot older than I am, so she had more experience than I did. I'd say she's the reason I managed to win the grand festival 5 years ago."

"Oh cool, do you two still communicate?" Lyra asked.

Silence.

"Marina?"

"Sorry, I don't want to talk about it." Marina said, sounding a little upset.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Sorry for asking." Lyra said before going to sleep.

"Good night Lyra."

Marina stayed up a bit longer thinking long and hard. Eventually, she too fell asleep.

* * *

**Trainer Card: Khoury Niosi**

**Age: 17**

**Hometown: New Bark Town, Johto**

**Birthday: April 1st, 1988 (LOL, poor guy)**

**Height: 5'05"**

**Blood Type: A**

**Eye Color: Dark Brown**

**Hair Color: Dark Green**

**Trainer Class: Pokemon Researcher**

**Secondary Class: Pokemon Breeder**

**Other Hobbies: Solving Riddles, Badminton, Geeking out way too much**

**Notable Achievements: n/a**

**Special Conditions: n/a**

**Titles: n/a**

**Pokemon (On Hand)**

**-Croconaw(M)**

**-Gabite(F)**

**-Sneasel(F)**

**-Klink(Genderless)**

**-n/a**

**-n/a**

* * *

**Well, that wraps up chapter 7!**

**Really sorry for the long wait, I'll try not to cram in so much content in the future**

**Alexis is not a character that exists in any version of Pokemon, she is an OC (Original character)**

**See you all next time!**

**Next chapter: Veiled Past**

* * *

**3/25/2020 - Fixed an error where Lyra said "Razor Leaf" instead of "Magical Leaf" during the battle sequence**

**6/23/2020 - Fixed an error where Bayleef was able to use 5 attacks (Magical Leaf, Energy Ball, Giga Drain, Poison Powder, and Reflect) instead of 4 during the battle sequence. The one instance where Bayleef used Energy Ball was replaced with Magical Leaf.**


	8. Chapter 8: Veiled Past Part One

**Hey all! Welcome back! I hope you enjoy chapter 8!**

**I decided to split veiled past into too parts because otherwise it would be way too long.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Veiled Past: Part 1**

* * *

**Unknown time and location**

We set our scene in a large, open, windowless room. It was rather tidy with all of the floors void of litter and scraps. At the center sat a man sitting at a large desk. He was rather tall, and wore dark clothes; his most noticeable feature was the red "R" on the right side of his suit.

This man's name is Giovanni Terram, former gym leader, and cunning mastermind behind all of Team Rocket. His name was known by many people across the globe due to the relevance of the organization he had worked so hard to create.

And that same organization was beginning to anger him.

Recently, there have been a few... hiccups with his quest for power. Rocket grunts were getting arrested, which is something he would not tolerate. Every time one of his men got arrested, that's information going to the authorities if the grunts were unable to keep their mouths shut. It didn't help that the grunts were awful at being discrete.

At the same time, he had to be thankful for his high-ranking agents. They knew how to escape from the police, and they worked hard to not spill information over. For example, Proton recently told him about how he and a few grunts were caught in one of their smaller hideouts, so he used Koffing to explode and destroy as much information as he could. Unfortunately, the grunts were too panicked to remember the secret passage, so they were caught in the explosion. Proton succeeded in destroying all of the information in the room, but thanks to the grunts, the endeavor didn't conceal as much as Giovanni would have liked.

The man stood up and started pacing back and forth, he really needed to find a way to stop the leak of information, but how? "Perhaps Dr. Pama might be able to think of a solution..." he said to no one in particular

Just then his doors burst open, with an angry scientist being the disturber of the peace.

"What do you want?" Giovanni asked in an exasperated tone.

The scientist pointed his finger accusingly at him, "My name is Dr. NAMBA! You hear me? N-A-M-B-A! NAMBA! Get it right!"

"Silence you insolent fool!" Giovanni responded angrily. Then he cleared his throat; "Anyway, I need to discuss something with you."

"What is it sir?" Asked the scientist.

"It would seem that many grunts are getting arrested, in spite of the training we've given them." Giovanni explained.

"Hmm, as troubling as that is, it doesn't surprise me; most grunts are only working for the money and not for the sake of your organization." Dr. Namba pondered.

"I'm well aware, I guess that'll have to be the case until you and Dr. Zager are done with your project." Giovanni said.

The scientist perked his head up at the mention of his work; "Ah yes, we are making excellent progress on it sir. I'm certain we will be unstoppable then. In the meantime, why don't you visit Professor Sebastian, he's not busy and may be able to think of another solution to our problem."

"I think I'll send him in now, you are dismissed." Giovanni responded.

Dr. Namba nodded and left the room. Then Giovanni messaged Professor Sebastian to come and see him in his office.

While he was waiting, he dialed a number on his phone and waited for someone to pick up.

Then a voice presented itself from the other side; "Hello?"

"This is Giovanni, I have a task for you to complete." The leader of Team Rocket responded.

* * *

**8 days later, Saturday, July 26th, 2005, 9:36 PM**

...

Unfortunately, I could not provide any of you readers a more explosion-induci-

"BOOM!"

The collision between two attacks, Ice beam and Thunderbolt covered the field in a white, cool haze with streaks of electricity dancing around. The two Pokemon responsible for the attacks were Helioptile, the Generator Pokemon on one side, and Poliwrath, the Tadpole Pokemon on the other.

Helioptile is small electric/normal-type with a reptilian appearance. They are known for using the sun to generate energy, which is trait that scientists are still baffled at. Prior to Helioptile's discovery, it was believed that such an ability could only happen in plants or grass-type Pokemon.

Poliwrath on the other hand is a water/fighting-type. It was much larger than Helioptile, being almost four feet tall and standing on two legs. It swims in a similar way that humans do, using their front limbs to pull and their hind legs to propel themselves. Unlike humans, they are much faster and have way more stamina. A study found that a Poliwrath could swim from Kanto to Kalos (two regions that are very far away from each other) without slowing down, or taking any breaks, it is quite a remarkable Pokemon.

On opposite sides of the field stands two familiar trainers. On Helioptile's side is Casey, and on Poliwrath's side is Vincent.

So before continuing the battle, a bit of background to help the readers understand what's going on.

The group had traveled for another two days, they were nearing Ecruteak City and would likely be there by the next day.

Earlier today, Vincent had "booby-trapped" the salt shaker while the group was eating breakfast. Not only did he unscrew the lid, but he replaced the salt inside with sugar. His victim just so happened to be Casey Williams. She was going to shake a little salt on her scrambled eggs, but then the lid came off, caking her eggs in "salt". Everyone was in confusion, except for Vincent who was laughing his head off. Casey decided to keep her cool and push the excess "salt" off of her meal until an acceptable amount was left on.

Then she took a bite and her gag reflexes kicked in. The horrid combination of eggs and sugar left a very bad taste in her mouth. Vincent had almost fallen out of his seat laughing, proud that his prank had worked. At this point, Casey had decided she had enough. Absolutely fed up with the older boy's games, the younger girl challenged Vincent to a battle on the condition that whoever lost had to miss out on lunch AND dinner. "He must fast for his crimes." as Casey had put it **(I'm pretty sure that's not how fasting works Casey)**.

So, that brings us to the present. Casey and Vincent were in the middle of their battle, with Casey currently having the upper hand. Everyone else just watched in silence, completely dumbfounded by the absurdity of their two friends.

"Let's keep this up! Use Swift!" Casey issued an attack on the Tadpole Pokemon.

The Electric/Normal type released a flurry of golden stars towards Poliwrath.

"Intercept with Ice Beam!" Vincent attempted to block the Swift.

The two attacks collided, creating another small explosion.

"Now get close and use Waterfall!" Vincent commanded his Water/Fighting-type.

"Dodge the attack and use Parabolic Charge!" Casey countered.

Poliwrath tried to get close to thee Generator Pokemon to issue a Waterfall attack, but Helioptile agilely leaped out of the way to avoid getting hit. Then the electric/normal-type released a bolt of yellowish-green electricity at Poliwrath. The attack hit it's mark and the Tadpole Pokemon grimaced in pain from the super-effective attack. Then a streak of electricity escaped through Poliwrath's body and Helioptile absorbed it, restoring the latter's energy a little.

While the two immature childre-

"EXCUSE ME?" Casey rudely interrupted our wonderful narrator.

...I mean while the two _competent trainers_ were battling, the rest of the group were watching them, intrigued.

"It was a good call on Casey's end to use Parabolic charge." Khoury commented; "That move will damage Poliwrath significantly and also recharge some of Helioptile's energy."

"Right. I'll say, Casey's doing better than I thought she would, guess she really wants revenge on Vincent." Jimmy said.

"I don't blame her, if I was in Casey's place, I would be absolutely miffed at that guy." Lyra said, entering her input into the conversation.

Jimmy turned to Marina to see if she had anything to say, but she had a blank face, as if she hadn't been listening.

"Marina?" He asked. No answer. He waved his hand in front of her face; "Hello?"

The blue-haired girl snapped back into reality; "What is it?"

"You were spacing out. Are you okay?" Jimmy asked her concerned.

Marina nodded her head and put on a cheerful smile; "Of course!" Then she returned her attention to Casey and Vincent's battle.

Jimmy continued to look at her, not believing her; "_Something's definitely bothering her. I'll talk to her later, but I'm not sure if she's going to tell me."_

Jimmy then turned to the battle and his gaze landed on Vincent; "_Maybe Vincent should come with me when I do, he'll want to know what's up with her."_

Just then, Jimmy heard a loud voice, which he instantly recognized to be Casey's.

"YOU SNEAKY LITTLE- I'LL KILL YOU!" The young girl yelled at the older boy, obviously infuriated.

Confused by this reaction, Jimmy turned to Marina, "What happened?"

"Vincent lured her into a trap and landed a Toxic on Helioptile, so now it's badly poisoned." Marina explained before giving Jimmy a smirk, "Who's spacing out no-"

"Not. A. Word." Jimmy cut her off.

After that, no more words were spoken by the audience until the end of the battle.

"Use Waterfall Poliwrath!" Vincent commanded the Tadpole Pokemon.

Poliwrath quickly raced towards the Generator Pokemon while a floating bubble filled with water appeared above it. Then when Poliwrath got close, the bubble of water broke and spilled onto Helioptile. The water was pressurized and pushed the electric/normal-type back with a ton of force.

"While the water is there, use Thunderbolt!" Casey attempted to counter.

Helioptile's distressed expression disappeared and was replaced with determination, then it let loose a crackling bolt of electricity. Since it was surrounded by water, the electricity went haywire, zapping Poliwrath as it was nearby. The water/fighting-type fell on one knee as electricity coursed through its body.

Helioptile and Casey both had smirks on their faces until the former grimaced in pain, the Toxic that had hit Helioptile before had begun to affect it.

"Don't give up Helioptile! That poison's got nothing on you!" Casey shouted some words of encouragement to her partner.

"Use Brick Break Poliwrath!" Vincent ordered, aiming for a super-effective hit.

Casey knew that she had to think of something since there was no way Helioptile could tank a super-effective hit from a fully-evolved Pokemon; "Block it with Dragon Tail!"

The two attacks collided, causing both Pokemon to be pushed back from the impact.

"Before it can attack, use Ice Beam!" Vincent attempted to catch his opponent off-guard.

"Dodge it!" Casey reacted instinctively.

Helioptile tried to jump out of the way, but the poison acted up again, causing Helioptile to grimace and stay in one place. Meanwhile, Poliwrath formed a concentration of light blue energy and shot it in a beam-like form. The attack hit the electric/normal-type, freezing it in place in an ice mound.

"Now finish it with Brick Break!" Vincent commanded.

Poliwrath ran up and slammed it's fist against the ice, breaking it and sending Helioptile back.

The generator Pokemon skidded across the ground a few times before sliding to a complete stop, unable to continue.

...

Jimmy that's your cue-

"Oh, Helioptile is unable to continue, so that means the winner is Vincent and Poliwrath!" Jimmy declared.

Casey ran over and picked up her fallen Pokemon, "You okay Helioptile?"

The Generator Pokemon gave a small nod of reassurance.

"We'll get him back one day, we just gotta keep training." Casey said as she returned Helioptile to its Pokeball.

"Hey, good battle." A voice spoke in front of her.

Casey turned her attention to the voice, who happened to be her previous opponent; "Oh, you too."

"Now, about the bet we made..." Vincent began.

"I know... I know..." Casey said with irritation; "No need to remind me."

"Just making sure... but seriously, you did very well." Vincent said, trying to offer some encouraging words. Vincent may be an evil prankster, but he's not one to brag when he wins a battle and rub it in someone's face.

Afterwords, everyone packed up their stuff and hit the road. They were a couple of days from Mahogany Town, where Lyra would have her gym battle. Lyra was making sure to train extra hard so that she would be ready for the gym. The Cubone that Lyra had caught before had warmed up to everyone now (before it would only hang around Lyra).

While they were walking, the group conversed with one another about random topics, but Marina remained pretty quiet throughout, she seemed pretty deep in thought. This time, her disconnection from the group was noticed by everyone. It was almost like there was a gaping hole there, it couldn't go unnoticed.

Jimmy had a side conversation with Vincent about this; "Something's really bothering her, she isn't like this at all."

Vincent nodded, "I think we need to talk to her about it, and it'll be best to not involve the others so that we don't overwhelm her when we do."

"Agreed, but we also need to remember that we can't force whatever it is out of her. We can tell her that we've seen how she's acting, but it's totally up to her whether she wants to share it. The thing we need to do is be supportive friends." Jimmy said to his friend.

"I say we ask her about it after dinner tonight." Vincent suggested.

"I was thinking the same thing." Jimmy answered.

After their discussion, they went back to chatting with their friends. Their conversations were mostly friendly, until Casey and Vincent started having a rather heated discussion about which Pokemon-type was better, water or electric. As you could guess, Casey was defending the electric-type. It wasn't quite an argument, but it could have been one if Jimmy didn't say "Everyone has their own opinions, every type has their strengths and weaknesses."

Eventually, they got out sandwiches for lunch and ate lunch. As Casey decided to hold up her end of the bet and not eat. Vincent tried to be a nice guy for once and said that she could eat if she wanted to; but Casey insisted that she shouldn't eat. "I will starve myself so that I will work harder to beat you next time Vincent!" she had said.

**(I don't see her logic, I would jump at the opportunity, I like food)**

"You're not allowed to have input Penguinn! You aren't even in the same universe as us!" Vincent hollered.

**(I do what I want, and you do what I want, I have storyteller rights over you!)**

"YOU AREN'T THE BOSS OF ME!" Vincent retaliated.

Anyway, nothing important happened for awhile. Dinner came and went uneventfully, except for Casey, who refused to eat again. Around 8:07 PM, Jimmy and Vincent asked Marina if the three of them could talk privately, the blue-haired girl was confused by their gesture, but agreed anyway.

A few minutes later, the three met up a ways away from the campsite, they had already informed everyone else that they would be gone for a few minutes and to holler if they needed anything.

"So... what's up? Why'd you call me here?" Marina asked.

Jimmy took a deep breath, he wasn't exactly the best at talking about personal problems with another person, whether they attribute to himself or others. "I don't know if we're worrying over nothing, but me and Vincent have noticed that you've been acting differently. We want to know if anything is wrong." he said, getting straight to the point.

Marina raised an eyebrow; "I have? How so?"

Vincent spoke up next, "You've barely talked to any of us today, and you're one of the most talkative people in our friend group. We're not the only ones too, I have a feeling that everyone else has noticed too."

Marina's head dropped when she heard this; "And I thought I hid my feelings pretty well..."

"No offense, but you really didn't hide them well at all." Vincent added.

"Probably for the best too." Marina agreed.

Jimmy spoke up again, "So... is there anything wrong? We're your friends and we want to help you in the best way we can. If you're not comfortable with telling us yet, then you don't have to tell us, but please understand that we're here to help."

Marina didn't respond for awhile, seemingly comprehending what Jimmy had said to her. Then she finally spoke, "There is something wrong, but I feel like I won't be able to give you guys the full story if I told you now with all my thoughts messed up. Can you give me until tomorrow to collect my thoughts and give you a better perspective."

Both of her friends smiled at her. "Of course, take all the time you need." Jimmy responded.

Marina then pulled her two friends into a hug, "Thanks for caring you two, I couldn't ask for better friends."

"Of course." Vincent said.

"I will say this though, this has to do with me quitting show business awhile ago." Marina said to them.

Jimmy's eyes widened in surprise; "So you've had this in you for over a year?" he asked her. "_Maybe she is good at hiding her feelings after all._" he thought.

"Yeah, but I recently started thinking back on it a lot, which is why you've only noticed now." Marina answered. Sensing that the conversation was over for now, Marina decided to take her leave; "Well, I'm going to go sleep on this now, I should have an explanation to you two by then. Love you both, goodnight."

Then she started walking back to the camp.

Jimmy looked at the ground, seemingly embarrassed by Marina's last comment. This unfortunately was noticed by Vincent, who smirked and called out to the blue-haired girl; "Hey Marina! Be careful where you use the "L" word!"

If Marina heard him, she gave no indication, then she finished walking back the campsite and entered her and Casey's tent.

"Well, that went well." Vincent said.

"Yeah, it did, I'm glad too." Jimmy answered seeming to have recovered from before.

"Ponder your love life later dude, we gotta get some shut-eye." Vincent joked.

"Marina's not my-" Jimmy began.

"What? I can't hear fake news." Vincent chuckled before heading back.

Jimmy shook his head and followed his friend.

* * *

**9:37 PM**

Marina was having trouble sleeping, thinking about how to effectively tell her friends what she was going through right now. Casey's snoring didn't exactly help the case either.

A few moments later, she decided to go outside where it was hopefully a little more quiet than inside her tent.

She was wrong.

As she opened her tent flap, she heard this obnoxious laughter coming from the other side of the campsite. Turning her head towards the noise, she noticed that Khoury's tent flap was open and there was a light coming from Jimmy and Vincent's tent. There were silhouettes of all three boys doing who-knows-what.

Coincidentally, Marina wasn't the only one who heard the noise as she heard a zipping of a tent flap coming from Lyra's temporary shelter. The younger girl poked her head out, with tired eyes, she scanned the area until her eyes fell upon Jimmy and Vincent's tent.

Then Lyra took notice of Marina; "You heard it too?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll go see what they're doing. If they chose to do this at this time of night, there's no reason that they can't be quieter." Marina offered.

"Thanks, I don't want to have to go over their myself and ruin my book more by using it on those morons." Lyra replied coldly.

Marina chuckled nervously, Lyra was definitely cranky when she was tired; "Of course."

Lyra returned to her tent and Marina walked over to the boys' tent; "Hey guys, what's going on in there?"

Their talking ceased and Jimmy opened the flap; "What's up Marina?"

Marina put her hands on her hips, as if trying to look displeased; "Can't you be a little quieter? Me and Lyra can't go to sleep with your noise."

"I would be quieter." Khoury began before pointing his finger accusingly at Vincent; "If this guy would stop pulling Draw 2s on me!"

Vincent had a laugh at Khoury's comment; "Don't blame me man, I pulled those from the deck! Fault the deck!"

Marina gave them a confused look; "You guys are playing UNO at 9:40?"

"We've done worse." Vincent said, trying to justify their game.

Jimmy shook his head at the two; "Yeah, I'll be quieter, I don't know about these two though."

"I will, I can't have Lyra strangling me in my sleep." Khoury said.

"Yeah, I will too." Vincent agreed.

Jimmy turned his attention towards Marina again; "Goodnight, sleep well."

Then he closed his tent flap and it was now a little quieter, the light from their tent even dimmed a little bit.

Marina now had the peace and quiet that she wanted. She wandered around the campsite for a little bit, trying to collect her thoughts together. While she was doing so, she thought back to the event that changed everything for her.

* * *

**Flashback - 5 years ago - October 16th, 2000, 2:12 PM**

_She had done it, she managed to win the Johto Grand Festival on her first try. Months and months of training and hard work had finally paid off. With the help of her Pokemon, she had not only managed to win one of the biggest events in the region at a young age, but also defeated her biggest rival Leslie, who had more years of experience than her!_

_Grinning from ear to ear, she walked up to receive the Ribbon Cup, proof of having won a Grand Festival; from this day forward, she was now a top coordinator. Marina received the trophy from the judges and held it up high. The crowd erupted into cheers of happiness, and thus, the festival came to a close._

**Later that day - 6:34**

_Marina had just finished eating dinner with the rest of the participants of the Grand Festival. Most of them congratulated her for her victory and wished her luck for the future. Some were salty and kept rambling about how they should have won. Oh well, she couldn't please everyone. __She was walking back to her hotel room to think about what to do for the rest of the day. Coordinators that competed in the Grand Festival were given a hotel room to stay in for free until the Grand Festival was over, meaning that today was the last day Marina was allowed to stay there. This is the same for people competing in the Pokemon League._

_On the way, she saw her opponent from earlier that day, Leslie, walking towards her. The older girl gave the younger one a smile and walked up to speak with her._

_"How are you feeling miss "Top Coordinator?" Leslie asked Marina._

_"Really shocked, I didn't think I would be able to beat you, especially considering how much experience have." Marina responded honestly._

_"Good to hear. I was surprised too, but you deserved it, you obviously trained very hard for that battle." Leslie commented._

_"Yeah, I actually feel kinda bad now, if you started coordinating at 12 and you're 17 now, does that mean this is the 5th year in a row that you've lost the Grand Festival?" Marina asked._

_Leslie's smile noticeably faltered after the question was asked, making Marina regret asking; "Yeah, but don't worry, I'm bound to win one soon."_

_"Yeah, I would hope so, for your sake." Marina said, trying to cheer her older friend up._

_Leslie still looked a little unhappy; "I hope so too."_

_Marina then decided to opt for a different strategy; "Don't start thinking that you're a bad coordinator now. Remember when we first met? You destroyed me in the first contest I ever took part in; but instead of bragging about your victory, you decided to help me learn more about coordinating. Not only that, you taught me patience, humility, and so much more. If it weren't for you, there is no way I would be where I am today."_

_Leslie's smile finally returned; "Thanks for your kind words Marina. I'm off to pack up my stuff now, see ya."_

_"See ya." Marina answered._

_Over time, Marina would grow to be a very popular as a top coordinator. Being a top coordinator by itself is just an honorary title, but it did help someone gain attention. Marina's goal was to perform for people and help them smile, and she was finally starting to reach it. Even though she was young, she handled her fame very well and made sure not to let it get to her head._

_Every year, she would also participate in the Top Coordinator World Tournament. A competition where top coordinators from all over the world competed in a giant contest to see who out of them was the absolute best; however she normally would lose to the big names such as Robert Erickson or Wallace Reyes so it wasn't something she was super invested in._

_A downside of this however, was the lack of downtime, she would often go perform in one place, then go to another not long after. Because of this, she rarely ever saw Jimmy and Vincent around. Sure, they sometimes showed up to her performances, but she rarely got the chance to interact with them. This could have been prevented though, as activities she took part in were all optional, but she insisted on taking part in them for a majority of her free time._

_On the other hand, Leslie was struggling, a lot._

_The year after Marina won, Leslie had lost in the quarter-finals against this trainer named Amanda Fields. This girl was in her 20's and had way more experience than Leslie did. Marina's older rival remained optimistic for the future and continued working hard._

_The next year was where something big happened, a coordinator from Hoenn that was Marina's age competed in the 2002 Johto Grand Festival. Her name was May Taylor, and she was paired up against Leslie in the semifinals. _

_May not only managed to win, but she managed to win with an overwhelming score of 87 - 26. May didn't just beat Leslie, she crushed her. May would later go on to the finals against another coordinator named Drew Rogers. The match was very close, but May ultimately turned out to be the victor._

_As you could guess, Leslie was NOT happy that she had lost for the seventh time in a row, she was starting to lose patience in herself and others despite Marina coming to comfort her. In spite of this, Leslie still continued to train harder than ever before and took part in the 2003 Johto Grand Festival._

_Remember that trainer that May faced off in the finals, Drew? Well, he and Leslie were paired up in the first battle of the second round of the Grand Festival, and he managed to beat her and won the festival._

_These losses affected Leslie in such a drastic way that it started the collapse of her moral code. She stopped going to Marina for comfort and started hanging out with the wrong people, who encouraged her to do illegal things and make bad choices. Leslie still wanted to contests though, and would start working towards her goal in 2004._

_Leslie didn't even win enough ribbons to even compete in the Grand Festival that year._

_From there, Marina didn't know much as Leslie stopped contacting her altogether, or so she thought._

_One day, after Marina had finished a performance and went to her hotel room, she received a call from Leslie. Overjoyed to hear from her friend, Marina quickly answered._

_"Leslie? It's good to hear from you agai-" Marina started talking, but she was cut off._

_"Shut up you little runt, you're going to listen to me." an angry voice answered over the phone._

_Completely surprised by the response, Marina wasn't sure if she had heard correctly; "Excuse me?"_

_"You heard me, now listen up, I'm going to come to your hotel room, and you are going to hand me all the money you have. I know you recently got paid, so you can't use the 'I don't have any money on me' excuse." Leslie replied, nothing but anger emanating from her voice._

_Marina was in absolute shock when she heard this, she had thought that her friend had contacted her so that they could reconnect, but no, all she wanted was money for who-knows-what; "And what if I don't comply?"_

_"Then I won't hesitate to tell my Ledian to use hyper beam on you." Came a voice from Marina's hotel door._

_Marina's head instantly directed itself to the door where Leslie was standing, yet, she hardly recognized her anymore. The older girl usually gave off a calm, pleasant aura that made people comfortable around her, but this girl made Marina gulp in fear by the way she looked._

_Leslie's skin was pale and wrinkly, a sign that she wasn't making very good choices, her bloodshot eyes bore into the younger girl. Her clothes were tattered and some even had blood on them._

_As Leslie had said, a Ledian was by her side; but the Five Star Pokemon had a very different look than Leslie did. The bug/flying type had marks on its skin and a horribly misshapen set of wings, its eyes showed complete terror. From what Marina could put together, Ledian had probably been abused by its own trainer._

_ Marina started backing away, she couldn't call 911 as Leslie would notice and probably kill her on the spot; "W-why are you doing this?"_

_"Isn't it obvious? YOU did this to me!" Leslie accused._

_"M-me? What did I do?" Marina asked, shocked by the accusation._

_"You took away my future all those years ago! If you had just let me win, maybe today would have been different!" Leslie shouted._

_"I won fair in square, I'm sorry you haven't been able to win yet, but blaming it on m-" Marina began._

_"I found out that all those times of you comforting me after I lose have been LIES! My friends told me that you talk about me behind my back all the time, after everything I have done for you!" Leslie roared at the younger girl._

_Marina started to tear up, one of her best friends would really believe that she was talking bad about her, how deep of a hole had Leslie fallen into?_

_"W-why do you want the money." Marina choked out._

_"Since I was the one that should've won that day, I obviously deserve the money that you've gotten from your career. If you don't comply, I'll kill you, it's that simple." Leslie replied nonchalantly, completely oblivious to her own ridiculous logic._

_Marina didn't have a choice, so she pulled out her wallet and just gave it to Leslie. Marina didn't really care about it anyway, she had a backup credit card hidden already and she was more concerned about her friend._

_After checking the contents to make sure there was an adequate amount, Leslie closed it, satisfied; "I'll be coming for more another time, I deserve it after all."_

_Marina lit up at that statement, that meant that she could call the police and possibly trap Leslie before she had the chance to threaten her again._

_This changed however, when Leslie started heading out the door; "Don't bother calling the cops on me, I will find out, and I will kill you before they get the chance to come."_

_Marina gulped and nodded her head._

_And with that, Leslie was gone._

_No matter how hard she tried, Marina could not get herself to sleep after that experience. The same friend that had taught her so many important life lessons had now become a loathsome criminal, it just couldn't be true. The same person who had taught Marina about taking losses well and learning from them had fallen victim to the very thing she warned against. Tears kept streaming down her cheeks as the recent events kept playing in her head._

_Finally, Marina decided that she needed a plan, there was no way that she was going to let Leslie rule her life; she would have to give up the life that she had, but her safety was far more important. After a while of thinking, she had a plan: to go back home. She knew that Leslie knew where she lived, but she would still be safer, then she could call the cops._

**The next morning**

_Marina woke up as early as possible and checked out as fast as she could. Then she released Xatu from her Pokemon and climbed on her back. Marina didn't feel safe with any public transport, so she decided that flying of her trusted Pokemon would be far safer._

_A few hours later, contacting the police on the way, she finally reached New Bark Town. As soon as she landed, she raced to her home, greeted her mother and went to her room. She sat there for a few moments before her tears returned and she completely broke down._

* * *

_..._

* * *

**Trainer card: Marina Davis**

**Age: 18**

**Hometown: New Bark Town, Johto**

**Birthday: June 28th, 1987**

**Height: 5'06"**

**Blood Type: B**

**Eye Color: Teal**

**Hair Color: Capri**

**Trainer Class: Pokemon Coordinator**

**Secondary Class: Pokemon Trainer**

**Other Hobbies: Jogging, Water sports, Panicking**

**Notable Achievements:**

**1999 Silver Conference - Top 16**

**2000 Johto Grand Festival - Winner**

**Special Conditions: n/a**

**Titles: Top coordinator**

**Pokemon:**

**-Feraligatr(F)**

**-Mismagius(F)**

**-Jigglypuff(F) (Shiny)**

**-Xatu(F)**

**-Minun(F)**

**-Bellossom(F)**

* * *

**Well... I got a little dark there.**

**Be on the lookout for Chapter 9: Veiled Past: Part 2!**

**See y'all next time!**


	9. Chapter 9: Veiled Past Part Two

**Chapter 9: Veiled Past Part II**

* * *

**Rocket Headquarters**

Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket was sitting in his office, enjoying the quiet atmosphere. He had accomplished everything he could do for now. He ordered Domino, one of his spies, to take a few grunts to an island off the coast of Johto and set up an outpost that would be instrumental to his plans. The only thing he had left to do was wait for Dr. Namba and Dr. Zager to finish testing their machine, then everything would be set for their attack.

Unfortunately, his silence was interrupted by his door opening quickly and suddenly, the culprit was Dr. Zager himself. Giovanni grunted in annoyance, this was the second day in a row his silence was interrupted.

"What do you want?" Giovanni asked in a condescending tone.

The scientist cleared his throat; "Sorry to bother you sir, but we've made a breakthrough and-"

"And what?" Giovanni asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I believe the machine is ready for usage." Dr. Zager answered with pride.

A menacing smile materialized on the Rocket Leader's face as he sat up; "I would like to see a demonstration."

"Gladly sir." Zager answered.

The scientist took the leader of Team Rocket over to his lab, where Dr. Namba was waiting for them. The other scientist took notice of them and walked up to greet them.

"It would seem Dr. Zager has informed you of the machine's completion. Come over here, we will show you." Dr. Namba said to his boss.

"I did not expect you to complete it this early, but the sooner the better, let's see a demonstration." said Giovanni.

The scientist's nodded and signaled two grunts there were off to the side to bring two Pokemon over. These two Pokemon were Ampharos, the Light Pokemon, and Rotom, the Plasma Pokemon. The grunts put both Pokemon into pokeballs and put them into two slots. The two slots were to the sides of another slot with an empty Pokeball in it.

Dr. Namba pushed a button located south of the three slots and electricity began to crackle. The two Pokeballs began to shake and glow. Eventually the machine's activity came to a halt. Dr. Namba picked up the middle Pokeball while Dr. Zager picked up the two on the side.

First, Dr. Zager opened the two pokeballs that had the two Pokemon in them, they were empty. Then, Dr. Namba revealed the contents of the middle pokeball, which now housed something

Giovanni's eyes widened at the sight of the experiment; "Marvelous work! You both truly have succeeded!"

"Of course! Now the question remains: what is our next plan of action?" Dr. Namba asked.

"How many of these have you created so far?" Giovanni asked.

"Four, including this one. The other three are in the hands of Matori, Archer, and your son. They've been ordered to keep them hidden until you give the command." Dr. Zager answered.

"Tell them to release them at 4:00 PM today, make sure they do it in a location the police cannot trace back to. What cities are they in?" Giovanni ordered.

"Your son is in Mahogany Town, Matori is in Cherrygrove city, and Archer is stationed in Cianwood city." Dr. Zager answered.

Giovanni nodded, it would be better to have attacks spread out instead of in the same place; "Good, they're not all in one place. Is the machine movable?"

"Yes, but due to its size, it won't be easy to move it to Domino's location without being caught by the authorities. Why are we moving it?" Dr. Zager responded, curious why the machine couldn't stay in its current location.

"I'll handle the relocation of the machine; we need to move it because the police may be able to trace our attacks back here. It's better for the machine to be in a temporary base instead of in our main headquarters. If they track it down to that base, it'll hardly hurt us at all. This leads to my next question: now that you know how to build it, how long will it take to build more?" Giovanni responded, interested in how easily the machine can be replicated.

This time, Dr. Zager's response wasn't ideal; "The machine is too complex to be mass-produced. We may have the blueprints to make more, but it'll take a week to make one."

Giovanni frowned, it couldn't be made quickly, but he would have to take it; "How about materials? How many would you be able to make if you used all of the funding I gave you."

"We have enough to make 50 more, so we aren't running low on supplies sir." Dr. Zager responded, reassuring his boss.

Giovanni took a moment to collect his thoughts on what his plan of action should be. Then he spoke: "Start working on three for now. It should be more than enough for our plans. I will use my underground and submarine network to move this machine over to Domino."

"It will be done sir." Dr. Zager replied.

"One last thing, make sure that your... creations target the Pokemon Centers and Pokemarts, crippling the region's trainers' ability to heal their Pokemon is a must." Giovanni requested.

Dr. Zager scribbled what his boss had told him on his notepad in order to remember his tasks; "Consider it done sir."

"Excellent, now that we have everything in check, you are all dismissed."

* * *

**Next Morning, Sunday, July 27th, 10:18 AM, Mahogany Town**

It was a lovely morning, Pidgey were chirping, the temperature was just right, and Vincent wasn't pulling any pranks on anyone. Our group woke up to a fairly normal day: Eating breakfast, packing up and traveling the rest of the way to Mahogany Town. Soon, they reached their destination. The town wasn't like Goldenrod city with lots of huge buildings backed-up traffic, it was instead much calmer and quieter.

If you don't like the rowdiness of big cities, this is the place you'd want to visi-

"ALRIGHT! WE MADE IT TO MAHOGANY TOWN!"

On second thought, maybe you should avoid this place until Lyra is out of the vicinity.

Lyra seemed much more excitable today, much to the dismay of her friends. It was pretty safe to say that the reason for Lyra's attitude was the fact that this would be the town where Lyra would have her first gym battle in a year.

"Pipe down Lyra, save the excitement for your gym battle." Vincent said, exasperated. It was rare for him to be annoyed at someone else, considering that he was the annoyance most of the time.

"Sorry Vincent, I just can't wait!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Let's just get there so that we don't have to deal with your shenanigans for the rest of the day." Jimmy proposed.

* * *

**Mahogany Gym, 10:22 AM**

"Closed? Why?" Asked a shocked Lyra.

"Gyms aren't open on Sundays, you'll have to wait until tomorrow." Said one of the attendants.

"Thanks anyway, we'll come by tomorrow then." Lyra answered.

The group walked away from the gym, which was a large, Japanese-styled building with artificial snow and ice on it. They were unsure of what to do, as the supposed highlight of the day had to be postponed. Lyra was especially saddened that she would have to wait longer for her comeback to gym battles.

"Well that's a bummer." Vincent said simply.

"No kidding." said Lyra, distastefully.

An idea came to Khoury's head, "Well, maybe you can take this opportunity to come up with a strategy for tomorrow."

All of Lyra's previous disappointment immediately disappeared; "That's a great idea! Does anyone want to come train with me?"

"Well obviously, you'll need someone with lots of knowledge on Pokemon and type matchups to help you." Khoury said proudly, clearly referring to himself.

"That's a good idea! Casey, do you want to help me out?" Lyra asked.

"I'd love to Lyra!" Casey replied enthusiastically.

"That's... not who I meant..." Khoury said, completely dumbfounded by Lyra's decision.

Vincent laughed; "Okay, that was funny."

Lyra gave Khoury a quizzical expression; "Then who were you referring to? You obviously couldn't be talking about yourself now."

"Ouch, Khoury." Jimmy commented.

"Are you just going to take that?" Vincent jumped in.

"You know what? Just go you two, it doesn't matter." Khoury said, defeated.

Marina decided to take pity on their group nerd; "Hey Lyra, why don't you take Khoury with you and Casey? I'm sure he wants to help out."

"Of course!" Lyra replied; "Khoury if you wanted to come with us, you could have just said so."

"Just kill me now." Khoury said.

"Yikes, you ain't dying on me that quickly. Let's go ya'll!" Lyra said as she and Casey walked to a nearby battlefield with Khoury trailing behind at a Slowpoke's pace.

"We have some strange friends." Vincent commented.

The three of them then decided that it was a good time to find a Pokemon Center where they could spend the night. Jimmy checked his Pokenav to locate the nearest one. Luckily for them, it was only a few blocks away, so Jimmy texted Casey the location of their temporary lodging and they started making their way to the Pokemon Center.

* * *

**With Lyra, Khoury, and Casey**

"Okay, so who are you going to use against... what was his name?" Casey asked.

"Alias." Khoury answered.

"Alien, that's right. Lyra, who are you going to use against Alien?" Casey asked.

"I said Alias, not Alie-" Khoury tried to say before being interrupted.

"Shush, I'm trying to ask Lyra something." Casey scolded him.

"Since Alias uses Ice-types, using Bayleef or Cubone would be a bad idea. The rest of my team should be fine. Though, I would like to teach a few of them some moves that are strong against Ice, like Fire." Lyra mused.

"Good idea, but Alias-" Khoury started.

"Alien." Casey corrected.

Khoury ignored her; "Alias is bound to have some moves that would counter against Ice's most common weakness, so I would advise teaching a few other moves of the Rock, Steel, or Fighting-types to also counter Ice."

"Good idea Khoury, what kinds of moves of those types will Blitzle, Marill, and Girafarig be able to learn?" Lyra asked.

Khoury thought for a second; "Blitzle already knows Flame Charge, so we can cross Fire out."

"Wait, before you continue, let me release my Pokemon." Lyra said.

Lyra took out her five Pokeballs and released all of her Pokemon: the determined Bayleef, the positive Marill, the intelligent Girafarig, the lively Blitzle, and the restless Cubone.

Lyra didn't want to admit it, but the real reason why she didn't want Cubone to battle was because it still gave off negative vibes whenever it was around anyone besides her. It wasn't reserved or introverted, but instead kind of a jerk. She was afraid he wouldn't be able to work with two other teammates during a gym battle. She planned on fixing that though, in time.

Lyra knelt down to talk to them; "Okay everyone, we have a gym battle coming up! The gym leader uses ice-type Pokemon, so Cubone and Bayleef will be at a disadvantage. Therefore, I would like for you two to sit out of this battle. Are you two okay with that?"

Bayleef nodded its head in approval of its trainer's decision, as much as it loved to battle, it wasn't one to disagree with logic.

Cubone on the other hand, was absolutely livid.

The Lonely Pokemon didn't show his emotions, as it didn't want to look bad in front of Lyra. He looked around and spotted the three Pokemon that were selected by Lyra to participate. Yes! He would sabotage them so that they would look incompetent in front of Lyra! He didn't quite know how he would do it, but he would think of something.

Unfortunately for the Ground-type (and fortunately for everyone else), Lyra picked up on its mal-intentions and quickly returned Cubone to its Pokeball and turned on the Pokeball's lock feature. She sighed and decided that she would have to talk to Cubone about his behavior later. Casey and Khoury raised their eyebrows in minor confusion, but both decided not to question the situation.

Lyra didn't bother telling her two friends what was up and instead focused on the current situation; "Okay, what kinds of moves can we learn to take on the gym Khoury?"

Khoury turned on his Pokedex and opened 3 tabs, one for the data of each Pokemon Lyra was going to use. He opened Marill's data first and skimmed through the possible moves it could learn. Nothing caught his interest except for two moves.

Khoury showed his Pokedex to the two girls so that they could see what he was looking at; "Marill can learn both Brick Break and Iron Tail, both are incredibly useful against Ice-types."

Casey took a closer look; "Marill can only learn either of those if we use Technical Machines. Where can we get those?"

"Um, let me check if I have either of them." Khoury said, rummaging through his backpack for his TM case. Technical Machines or TMs for short are small disks that can be inserted into a Pokedex. They play a video that help a specific Pokemon learn a specific move that they cannot learn on their own.

Khoury took out the case and started looking through the TMs he and Lyra had purchased while they were traveling with each other, he had offered to keep both of theirs so that Lyra did not have to carry her own case. Eventually, he pulled out a burgundy-colored TM.

"Here's Brick Break, I remember that I wanted to have my Sneasel learn this move, so I bought it. I couldn't find Iron Tail though." Khoury elaborated to his friends.

"That's fine, there's bound to be a TM shop here anyway." Lyra spoke up; "I'll go and find Iron Tail and buy it, TMs usually don't cost very much anyway. While I'm there, why don't you look up possible moves for Girafarig to learn Khoury."

"Okay, will do, don't get lost." Khoury teased.

"You have no faith in me..." Lyra pouted before running off to find a TM shop.

* * *

**5 minutes later...**

Lyra located the TM shop and walked inside, happy to receive the air conditioning inside of the building. The store was relatively small, only a few aisles that were labeled by type. Lyra walked over to the Steel aisle and skimmed through the options.

"Flash Cannon... Gyro Ball... Iron Defense... Iron Tail!" Lyra exclaimed, claiming her prize.

She then paid for the TM and exited the store. Feeling energized to train her Pokemon, she started walking at a brisker pace until she ended up running to get back to her friends and Pokemon.

After a while of running, she rounded a corner and- SLAM!

Lyra was knocked backwards onto the concrete sidewalk, her body in quite a bit of pain. Lyra looked at what she ran into and noticed a boy also on the ground, rubbing his aching head. He was a fair-skinned boy with brown-gray hair and a red headband across his forehead. Based on his looks, Lyra guessed he was likely a little younger than Casey. He took notice of Lyra and immediately stood up, his face turning red in embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry! I should have looked where I was going! Here, let me help you up." He said offering his hand.

"Thanks, but no thanks" she said, standing up on her own, without taking his hand.

The boy was clearly dumbfounded, he wasn't expecting that kind of response.

Lyra decided to speak up to hopefully break his silence; "It was my fault too for running so fast while rounding the corner, so I'm sorry too."

The boy was still in minor shock, so Lyra took his still outstretched hand and shook it; "My name is Lyra, and you are?"

This snapped him out of his trance; "Sorry for spacing out there. I'm Cameron, I'm from Unova."

"Unova huh? That's pretty far away. I remember visiting it for a few weeks one time." Lyra responded to the younger boy; "Why are you in Johto?"

"I'm here to compete in the Silver Conference! And I'm going to win it!" Cameron said energetically.

Lyra was taken aback by Cameron's mood shift, one second he seemed reserved and shy, the next he looked like he was going to take off and run a marathon any second. Then the "Silver Conference" part of his response hit Lyra; "You're competing in the Silver Conference? So am I!"

His face lit up with excitement; "Are you? That's so cool! How many badges do you have?"

"Five, I'm aiming to get my sixth one tomorrow." Lyra responded; "How about you?"

Cameron pointed his thumb at himself proudly; "I already got them all!"

"_Again?" _Lyra pondered to herself; "_First it was Alexis, but now this guy? How far behind am I?"_

Cameron noticed Lyra's expression change; "Hey, you look a little down, is something wrong?"

"Oh... I just feel behind... I met someone else recently that also had all 8 badges." Lyra responded.

"Eh, the league isn't until December, you've got plenty of time. Plus, I always speed to get the badges, then I explore the region afterward. I literally got all eight within two months of being here, and the time limit is technically 11 months." Cameron responded, trying to cheer her up.

"I guess that's true..." Lyra said.

Lyra then remembered something important: she needed to get back to Casey and Khoury!

"Ah! I need to be somewhere quick! Sorry to cut the conversation short." Lyra apologized to Cameron.

"Hey, it's fine. Again, sorry for bumping into you." Cameron reassured her.

Lyra was about to take off when she realized something; "Thanks, and I have one more question."

Cameron shrugged; "Okay, give it to me."

"Can you tell me who the new leader of the Blackthorn City gym is?" Lyra asked, hoping to know who her next major opponent was after she defeated Alias.

Cameron scratched his head, as if he was trying to remember; "Sorry, I can't remember her name. I do remember that she uses electric-types though... and that..." Cameron seemed like he was trying his hardest to remember more information.

"That's fine, just knowing she uses electric-types is enough." Lyra smiled at him, hoping to reassure the younger boy.

He still looked a little guilty for not being a bigger help; "Sorry again. I hope to see you in the Silver Conference in a few months."

"Same, it was nice meeting you Cameron." Lyra responded before both trainers parted ways.

As she finished her walk back to her friends, she once again pondered what Cameron had said; "_I wonder how many leagues Cameron has participated in. He doesn't seem like someone with lots of experience, but he did say that he defeated all of the gyms in two months. The gym leaders aren't pushovers either, so it's amazing that he was able to defeat all of them so quickly. Plus, the gyms have quite a bit of distance between them, so he must have rode a Pokemon to get to them so quickly."_

Lyra decided to push these thoughts away in order to focus on the current situation. She eventually reached her friends and began to train for her battle against the ice-type gym leader of Mahogany Town.

* * *

**Meanwhile... with Jimmy, Vincent, and Marina.**

"So... do you think Lyra will be fine in her gym battle tomorrow?" Marina asked her two friends.

Jimmy didn't quite understand why Marina was so concerned; "Yeah, she's a good trainer, and she's competent in battle so I think she'll be fine."

The three friends had checked in two rooms for them to sleep in for the night, one for the boys and one for the girls. They were all sitting and chatting in the boys' room.

"I know that... but what if Alias uses a large Pokemon her Megalophobia kicks in? Also, by the way Whitney described him, Alias doesn't sound like a stable person, let alone someone that should be running a gym." Marina elaborated on her thoughts.

Jimmy gave her a reassuring smile; "I actually looked up what Pokemon Alias is supposed to use if the trainer has 5 badges: Dewgong, Sneasel, and Piloswine. None of those raise any red flags. As for Alias himself, he's got all of us to deal with if he lashes out or something."

Marina nodded, satisfied; "That's good to know."

"It's kind of weird." Vincent began, adding his input; "He's said to be an angry and unstable person, yet he's a user of the ice-type. He's not a _chill _dude."

Vincent was hoping to hear some laughs from his two friends, maybe even an applause, but alas, he only got some groans of displeasure.

"Really Vincent?" said Marina, completely dumbfounded.

Jimmy didn't even bother to waste his words on Vincent's awful jokes, so he stayed silent.

Marina then remembered something important that she had promised yesterday; "Well, I guess now would be a good time to tell you guys about what's been up with me."

Vincent and Jimmy's both changed their attitudes to be serious for the situation. They both knew that they were about to learn a lot that their close friend was hiding from them.

"Alright... remember to tell us at your own pace, we want you to feel comfortable talking to us about this." Jimmy told her.

"We're here for you, never forget that." Vincent said, also trying to help.

Marina smiled, reassured; "Thanks you two. Here goes..."

Marina took a deep breath proceeded to tell the boys everything that had happened with her over the past few years. How busy her life was, Leslie drifting away, and of course, _that _night. Marina constantly paused to recollect her thoughts and let herself breath. Marina thought that she was completely ready to tell her two friends, but she still found it difficult to put her thoughts into words at times.

Jimmy and Vincent listened to all of her words, their eyes growing wider at every word she spoke. The boys could not believe that they were oblivious to all of this for so long. They both felt awful for not noticing their friend's behavior sooner.

Eventually Marina was starting to reach the end of her story; "I eventually got word from the police that Leslie and her friends had been captured and that I was safe to return to my show business. But... I realized in the time that I was away from it that I preferred not having to constantly worry about... well everything that comes with being a celebrity. A few months later, I heard back from the police that there was a break-in at Olivine prison and a few people were broken out of it, Leslie included."

Jimmy and Vincent just kept listening, afraid to hear what happened next.

"The crazy part is that none of Leslie's friends were broken out, it was just her. As for Leslie herself... I have not heard any word on her since she escaped, I'm pretty sure the police are still looking for her and the other inmates." Marina explained to them.

Then Marina sighed, finishing her story; "That is everything I've been keeping from you two."

Both boys were speechless, it was shocking to them to hear how someone that Marina had spoken so highly of had fallen so drastically. None of them had the right words for their female friend, so the trio ended up sitting in silence for awhile, all in deep thought.

Eventually, Jimmy finally broke the silence; "Marina... thanks for telling us this, I'm so sorry you had to experience that."

"Yeah... that was an awful experience for you. I can't believe that you had to go through that." Vincent jumped in.

Marina smiled at her friends' attempts to sympathize with her; "Thanks for listening, after telling you two this, I would like to leave this is the past now. I just needed to tell you two."

"Hey." Vincent said; "we're here for you."

Marina smiled; "Thanks."

Then Marina hugged both of them in thanks, the two boys following the same gesture. Then they released the hug.

"So... why'd you wait until now to tell us about this?" Vincent asked curiously.

Marina sighed and answered; "You know how I am... I don't want others to worry about me."

Jimmy nodded; "Yeah, we're aware of that. But it's better to tell someone about your bad experiences so they can support you. Are we the first people you've told since this happened?"

Marina only nodded.

Jimmy's face tensed up, wincing; "Yikes, that's a long time. How'd you keep it to yourself for so long?"

"It... wasn't easy, but I kind of forgot about it awhile ago. It was only recently when Lyra brought it up-"

"Lyra? Wait I thought you said you didn't tell anyone." Vincent pointed out, a little confused.

"Let me finish." Marina scolded. "She doesn't know, but she asked me a few days ago if I had any rivals while being a coordinator. It was the same day that we met Alexis."

Jimmy nodded understanding; "Ah, so her asking brought up some unpleasant memories?"

The blue-haired girl nodded; "That's exactly right. But I suppose it was good that she did, you guys deserved to know what was up with me."

"Yeah, don't be afraid to share this kind of stuff with us or someone else you trust, like your parents. You do trust your parents right?" Jimmy responded.

Marina shrugged; "I mean, yeah... but I don't like worrying them."

Vincent shook his head at her; "You don't like worrying ANYBODY."

Marina gave a nervous laugh at that; "That is also true."

"I have to ask though, are you planning on telling anybody else?" Jimmy asked.

Marina pondered the question for a bit before answering; "Casey deserves to know, so I'll tell her if I catch her alone sometime. My parents should know as well, if I find a good time to bring it up around them, I will. I don't think I'll tell Lyra and Khoury since I haven't known them for very long."

Jimmy nodded, understanding; "Alright, whatever works for you."

They sat in silence for a few more seconds, unsure of how to continue their conversation.

Sensing the awkwardness, Vincent spoke up; "So... should we check up on the group pipsqueaks?"

Jimmy picked up on Vincent's attempts to lighten the mood and switched his tone to a less serious one."Actually we should, we need to make sure Casey isn't responsible for anyone's electrical bills."

Marina gave a small laugh at this; "You never know, Lyra could have caused some collateral damage too. You know how she is."

"Yikes." Vincent said with fake urgency, "I can't have our gang getting arrested. Let's go you two!"

Jimmy laughed; "Right behind you."

Marina smiled, thankful for her close friends. Then she frowned; "_I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you guys everything._" Then she followed the two boys.

* * *

**3:57 PM...**

"So... you didn't destroy any property while we were gone?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah... why would we?" Lyra answered, a little confused.

"Oh nothing..." Jimmy responded before turning to Vincent; "I win."

"Ugh, fine." the other boy rolled his eyes before Jimmy handed him a hair bow that Vincent begrudgingly put on.

"Man, you look better as girl, who would've thought." Jimmy said, causing everyone to laugh.

Vincent just shrugged; "At least I can say that I've done this now."

"So how was training everyone?" Marina asked, choosing to ignore the previous event.

"Great! I have a team and a bunch of super-effective moves to use against Alias's Ice-types!" Lyra replied, clearly excited for her upcoming gym battle.

"Ahem, Lyra." Casey said.

Lyra looked at her, confused; "Huh?"

"His name is Alien." Casey told her.

Khoury facepalmed; "Not again..."

"Well, I'd love to see what you have planned! Would you like to show us?" Jimmy asked.

"Of course! I would love some more advice on my strategy anyway." Lyra answered.

"Alright! Then let's see-" Jimmy tried to say before being cut off.

A large explosion was heard by the group, causing them to duck reflexively. When they saw that the explosion was not near them, they stood up straight again and looked in the direction the explosion had come from. It was somewhere in the town.

"What was that?" Casey asked, a little frightened.

"I don't know, but I say we find out." Vincent suggested, determined to find the source of the explosion.

Everyone agreed and the group began running towards the column of smoke that had materialized after the explosion had happened. When they got there, they noticed a bunch of people running away from a building that was now in smithereens. A lot of the people leaving were in medical outfits.

"What happened here?" Jimmy asked one of the people in a nurse's uniform, hoping for some answers.

The uniformed person answered him; "This strange Pokemon that no one can recognize started tearing up the Pokemon Center! People have tried battling it to subdue it but their Pokemon always get taken out very quickly!"

Just then, a roar was heard from the billowing smoke and a figure emerged. It was human-like, and only around five feet tall, but it was bulky, which gave the illusion of it looking bigger than it actually was. It was brown in color and had streaks across its body that resembled veins, except that they were glowing an electric blue color. Gray fur covered its chest area with a large white spike protruding from the middle of its chest.

In its hands were two stone beams which it was holding from the bottom up. Its head was the weirdest part though, along with dead white eyes and almost cat-like ears, its nose was a large red sphere that looks like something a clown would wear.

The creature released another roar that almost shook the whole town.

* * *

**Trainer Profile: Leslie Blackmore (Last available data before trainer's license was revoked)**

**Age (how old she would be by now): 22**

**Birthday: September 26th, 1983**

**Hometown: Cianwood City**

**Height: 5'09"**

**Blood Type: A**

**Eye Color: Violet**

**Hair Color: Blonde**

**Trainer Class: Pokemon Coordinator**

**Secondary Class: Pokemon Trainer**

**Other hobbies: Hiking, Ice skating, Watching My Little Pony**

**Special conditions: None**

**Titles: n/a**

**Notable achievements**

**-1996 Johto Grand Festival - Top 16**

**-1997 Johto Grand Festival - Top 8**

**-1998 Johto Grand Festival - Top 8**

**-1999 Johto Grand Festival - Top 4**

**-2000 Johto Grand Festival - Runner up**

**-2001 Johto Grand Festival - Top 8**

**-2002 Johto Grand Festival - Top 4**

**-2003 Johto Grand Festival - Top 32**

**Pokemon (These Pokemon were revoked from Leslie along with her trainer's license.)**

**-Ledian(F)**

**-Lanturn(M)**

**-Jumpluff(F)**

**-Honchkrow(F)**

**-Delibird(M)**

**-Stantler(F)**

* * *

**That wraps up Marina's backstory for now, it'll be revisited for important reasons later on, but now I'll be focusing more on other characters.. and Team Rocket.**

**Cameron isn't going to be a big rival to Lyra at all, that's Alexis's job. He WILL appear in the Silver Conference though, when I eventually reach that point of course. Until then, I'm not sure if Cameron will return in the main story as I do not have a reason to include him in anything else so far.**

**And unlike Alexis, Cameron is a character in the Pokemon series, not an original character.**

**See ya'll in the next chapter:**

**Chapter 10: Disaster at Mahogany**

**This is going to be a big one! After that is the second act of this story, which will start with Lyra's gym battle and will likely be around the same length as the first act. Expect more intense stuff to happen as we are now past the setup. Then the first book will conclude, but there will be more after that!**


	10. Chapter 10: Disaster at Mahogany

**Chapter 10: Disaster at Mahogany**

* * *

Everyone continued to stare at the beast in awe, unsure of what to make of it. Its features were very off-putting to the group as some of them didn't seem to go together. Its rage was also rather unnatural to see, as no Pokemon is known for destruction on this scale. Sure, some Pokemon are naturally angry, but not enough to commit to this level of rage.

The creature turned its head towards the group, as if it were noticing them, causing the team of six to hide behind a nearby building. They didn't want whatever the thing was to target them. After a few seconds of nothing happening, the group cautiously poked their heads out from the side of the building to see if they were still being watched. Thankfully, the creature had lost interest in them.

Lyra and Khoury simultaneously took out their Pokedexes and scanned the creature. Both devices took a couple of seconds to gather data, then Khoury's pulled up the information.

_"Lucario, the Aura Pokemon, and the evolved form of Riolu. It is said that no foe can remain invisible to this Fighting/Steel-type, since it can detect auras. Even foes it could not otherwise see." _The Pokedex recited.

The group was a little confused by the picture shown for Lucario. While the creature bore a few resemblances to the Aura Pokemon, there were still quite a few abnormalities. It's face looked nothing like the one shown in the picture, and it was colored a little differently. The electric blue veins shown on the creature were not present on the picture for Lucario either.

Lyra was about to put away her own Pokedex since it wasn't needed anymore, but then it pulled up some new data that surprised her.

_"Conkeldurr, the Muscular Pokemon, and the final evolved form of Timburr. It is thought that Conkeldurr taught humans how to make concrete more than 2,000 years ago."_

This put a shocked expression on everyone else as they crowded around Lyra's Pokedex to get a look at Conkeldurr. Comparing it to the creature, all of the abnormal features fit into the description of the Muscular Pokemon. The only thing that neither species had were the electric blue veins, but Conkeldurr did have red vein-like protrusions on its body, so maybe it was some sort of mutation.

"That Pokemon almost looks like a Lucario and a Conkeldurr mashed together." Khoury observed, though wanting to not believe what he was saying.

"But how could that possibly happen?" Casey wondered.

Khoury tried to think of a hypothesis; "Maybe a Conkeldurr and a Lucario mated, and instead of their child being one or the other, it mutated and became both? That's all I can come up with."

"We can figure out what it is later." Jimmy said to everyone; "But for now, we need to stop this thing, it took out the Pokemon center after all. We have to make sure it doesn't do anymore damage.

Marina agreed with him; "Jimmy's right. Everyone, send out a Pokemon that will do well against the Fighting or Steel type."

"That type combo is weak to Fire, Fighting, and Ground, so go off of that everyone." Khoury offered his knowledge to help out.

"Good to know Khoury. Next, we need a strategy, and fast." Jimmy nodded at the younger boy.

"We should lure it away from the town, that way, it can't do more damage." Casey said, pitching in her own idea.

"Good thinking, and we should also see if anyone in town would like to help us out, namely the gym leader." Jimmy said.

"Since I'm the worst battler in the group, I can do that, I'll try to get back to you guys as soon as I can." Khoury offered.

Jimmy nodded in appreciation; "Thanks, you should probably do that now."

"Will do." Khoury said before rushing off to find some trainers to aid his friends

"Good luck Khoury!" Lyra called out to her friend.

As Khoury went off, the friends continued formulating a plan to defeat the beast. Vincent eventually came up with an idea; "Does anyone have any Pokemon that can specifically grab this guy's attention? Maybe a move like Taunt or Follow Me?"

When Vincent said this, Lyra immediately facepalmed; "I'm pretty sure Khoury's Sneasel knows Taunt. Oh well."

"It's fine, my Jigglypuff knows Attract anyway, so I'll just use that." Marina said.

"But it may not work, your Jigglypuff is male, and we don't know what gender this Conkelcario is." Vincent commented, pointing out a potential flaw.

Lyra gave him a confused look; "Conkelcario? Who said you could name it?"

"Does it matter? We have much more important things to think about and you're worried about what I named it?" Vincent said, a little exasperated.

Vincent's reply caused Lyra to shrink back in embarrassment; "I guess not..."

"Attract is worth a try, even if it doesn't work, Jigglypuff should still be able to grab its attention." Marina said, justifying her plan to use Attract.

"I think it's a good idea. Other than that, has everyone selected what Pokemon they want to use." Jimmy said, with everyone nodding afterward. The boy smiled confidently; "Alright, let's take down this hybrid freak."

The group found a route that would lead the monster out of the city and got into their positions. Marina took Jigglypuff out of its pokeball while everyone else found a place to stay hidden. Marina came out from the corner of the building

Marina took a deep breath and called out to get the creature's attention; "Hey you!"

Intrigued, the creature turned its head towards the blue-haired girl. Seeing this, Marina whispered to Jigglypuff; "Okay Jigglypuff, time to use Attract."

The Balloon Pokemon winked at the mutant, causing the aforementioned to switch its focus to Jigglypuff. However, the Attract did not have the desired effect and only caused the 'Conkelcario' to cock its head to the side in confusion.

Marina sighed, dissapointed that it didn't work; "Guess it's time for plan B... use Thunder Wave Jigglypuff!"

The Normal/Fairy-type's body started crackling with electricity before releasing a thin bolt of lightning at the amalgamation. The electricity snaked around its body, paralyzing it. This time, Marina's endeavor succeeded and grabbed the creature attention. Angered by its destruction being interrupted, the mutant raced over to them and leaped up. Before Marina could respond, the Conkelcario landed a High Horsepower kick on the Balloon Pokemon.

"Jigglypuff!" Marina cried out in worry as her faithful Pokemon skidded a few feet away and struggled to get up.

Marina was about to rush over to aid her fallen Pokemon before Jimmy called out: "Marina watch out!"

The blue-haired girl whipped around and saw the monster rearing its right fist with flaming energy emanating from it. Marina ducked out of the way of the Fire Punch just in the nick of time, getting her clothes a little singed.

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" Marina taunted as the Conkelcario angrily turned its attention back to her and prepared both of its hands for a Close Combat attack.

Marina took out a pokeball and released its contents, "I need your assistance Mismagius!" Out came a floating purple creature with a hat-like protrusion on its head.

The blue-haired girl moved out of the way and the mutant raced towards the Ghost-type, hoping to take it out so that it could focus on the girl.

Unfortunately, Conkelcario had forgotten its Pokemon type knowledge, so the Close Combat phased right through the Magical Pokemon. Angry and confused, the Muscular/Aura Pokemon turned around and gave Mismagius a death stare.

Marina smirked, glad that the mutant's intelligence was limited; "Now use Mystical Fire!"

The Magical Pokemon opened its mouth and breathed out a magical, hot fire, which hit the hybrid directly. The Conkelcario grimaced in pain from the super-effective attack, but it didn't look too hurt from it.

Meanwhile, Marina rushed over to check on Jigglypuff, who had now successfully stood up. "Are you okay Jigglypuff?" Marina asked, earning a nod from the Balloon Pokemon. The blue-haired girl looked at the mutant that was desperately trying to hit Mismagius and frowned, Jigglypuff may not be the strongest member of her team, but he could take a lot of hits from opponents before fainting. This thing had almost taken him out in one hit, which made Marina scared for her friends when they would eventually send out their own Pokemon to battle the beast. She was especially scared for Lyra, who was the least experienced out of the five. Khoury was even less experienced, but he was busy finding help at the moment.

Eventually, Marina pushed away these thoughts and ordered Mismagius to lead the creature over towards them. The Magical Pokemon nodded and started leading the mutant to the place where Marina's friends would ambush the latter.

After a few minutes of Mismagius taunting Conkelcario and Marina staying far enough away to not get targeted, the destination was reached. They were now outside of Mahogany Town, where they could take the thing out once and for all.

Everyone jumped out of their hiding places and released their Pokemon. Jimmy released his Camerupt, which he chose for its fire-type moves. Vincent let out his Quagsire, which he picked for its ground-type moves and ability to take attacks well. Casey let out her Sandslash, which she selected for its ground-type moves, much like Vincent. Lastly, Lyra has selected Cubone for its Ground-type attacks, and because it was anxious to battle.

The mutant analyzed the situation and decided to take a different course of action. It summoned four sword-shaped projections that started to dance around it, when they dissipated, the Conkelcario suddenly felt much more powerful. Everyone grimaced when they saw the creature use Swords Dance, as they now knew that its attacks would now be hitting twice as hard as they were before.

Casey wasn't dismayed by this though; "C'mon everyone! we have strength in numbers! Use Drill Run Sandslash!"

Casey's Mouse Pokemon leaped up and started spinning with its claws outstretched making the formation look like a drill. When it hit, the Conkelcario grimaced in pain once again from taking another super-effective attack. After the attack finished, the Ground-type leaped out of the way and landed in front of the purple-haired girl.

Jimmy smiled at her confidence; "She's right everyone! Attack at full force! Use Eruption Camerupt!"

Lyra followed after him; "Use Bonemerang!"

"Power-up Punch!" Vincent commanded the Water Fish Pokemon.

Marina was the last to attack; "Use Sunny Day Jigglypuff! Then use Thunderbolt Mismagius!"

All of the Pokemon unleashed their respective attacks with Jigglypuff calling upon the suns rays, the group would need the sun to maximize the power of their Fire-type moves. But the mutant slammed its fists to the ground, causing huge rock formations to surround it. The Stone Edge attack protected the Aura/Muscular Pokemon from the Thunderbolt, Bonemerang, and Eruption, while Quagsire's Power-Up Punch slammed through the rocks and hit the Conkelcario with its attack, dealing super-effective damage, and also powering Quagsire up so that its physical attacks would hit harder.

The mutant angrily turned towards the Water/Ground-type and reared its fist, with freezing energy gathering around it.

Vincent panicked as he didn't know how hard the attack would hit; "Get out of there Quagsire!" Unfortunately, Quagsire was slow and couldn't get away in time, so it received a punch right to its chest. The punch knocked Quagsire back a few feet, and shards of ice had begun to form in the place where the Mud Fish Pokemon was punched. Quagsire managed to stay upright, but he still felt a little woozy after taking an unnatural amount of damage.

Marina was shocked after seeing the creature use Ice Punch. Didn't she already see what four moves it had when she was luring it in? She decided that it was just her imagination and focused on battling.

Jimmy took the opportunity to strike where the creature least expected: From above. "Use Eruption again Camerupt!" He commanded as the Eruption Pokemon aimed one of the miniature volcanoes on its back towards the shield of rocks, mortar style. Then it fired a stream of liquid fire from it which arced and landed in the middle of Conkelcario's defense, causing it to take massive damage and quickly escape from his fort.

Lyra took an opportunity while the creature was distracted; "Use Bonemerang!"

Casey assumed that the creature would focus on Cubone, so she took the chance to power up; "Use Swords Dance Sandslash!"

Cubone readied its bone and threw it in a spinning fashion towards the monster. The Ground-type attack hit its mark causing the creature to grimace in pain again and glare at Cubone. Meanwhile, the Mouse Pokemon had summoned four sword-shaped projections that spun around it for 10 seconds before disappearing.

During that time, the Conkelcario had remembered that the Bonemerang that Cubone threw would come back and try to hit it again, so it attempted to move out of the way. Unfortunately for it, electric streaks ran across its body when it tried to move, rendering it immobile for a few seconds. Cubone's bone came back and smacked the hybrid in the jaw, causing it to stumble in pain.

When Sandslash's Swords Dance finished, Casey commanded it to use Shadow Claw. The Mouse Pokemon obeyed and rushed up to the creature while it was recovering from the Bonemerang. Sandslash's ghostly claws slammed against Conkelcario, causing the beast to stumble back.

"Everyone attack now! it's getting weaker!" Jimmy called out to everyone, hoping that they could take the beast out if they all attacked together.

Marina nodded in agreement; "Alright! Mismagius, use Mystical Fire!"

"Sandslash use Drill Run!" Casey commanded, following suit.

"Smack it with an Aqua Tail Quagsire!" Vincent ordered the Water Fish Pokemon

"Fire Punch it!" Lyra said, aiming for super-effective damage.

"After their attacks hit, I need you to use Earth Power Camerupt." Jimmy said to his Eruption Pokemon, who nodded.

All four attacks managed to hit the monster, causing it to cry out in pain. After they hit, Camerupt mooed and slammed its feet on the ground. A large shard of earth came up and slammed into Conkelcario's face. The Aura/Muscle Pokemon stummbled backwards a few times before letting out a roar and falling to the ground, shaking the ground in the process.

Everyone stared in awe at the defeated beast and all celebrated at once.

"Yeah! We beat that thing!" Casey exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Yeah we did! And we didn't need any help! We're awesome!" Lyra said loudly, also jumping like a little kid.

The other three laughed at the two girls, but they were really happy too.

"It's a shame that we didn't need Khoury though, he went through the trouble to find help for us. Oh well, at least we defeated it quickly." Marina said.

Jimmy nodded in agreement; "Yeah, I guess we can call him now and tell him that everything is under control."

As soon as he said this though, the group heard a noise behind them. All of them whipped around to see the mutant sitting up, looking extremely angry. It narrowed its eyes towards the group and gave a loud roar, the electricity that was paralyzing it had now escaped from its body. The hybrid clenched its teeth in a hateful manner and summoned the sword projections again.

Everyone's eyes widened in fear when they saw Conkelcario use Swords Dance a second time, if it succeeded, its physical attacks would be hitting 3 times as hard as they normally would.

Casey didn't waste any time and tried to take it out before it could do any more serious damage; "Use Drill Run!"

Her Sandslash understood his trainer's urgent tone and raced towards the mutant as fast as it could. But the creature only grunted and slapped the Mouse Pokemon out of its way. The Swords Dance finished and gave the creature another boost in power. To show for this, it ran at an incredible speed since the paralysis wasn't affecting it anymore.

Before Jimmy could react, Conkelcario slammed into his Camerupt with its Close Combat attack. The Eruption Pokemon was thrown a few feet back before it crashed into the ground, unable to battle.

Everyone gasped when this happened, Jimmy's Camerupt was a lot like Marina's Jigglypuff in that it could take hits very well, even if they were super effective. The idea of it being taken out in one hit was absurd on its own, so it was completely unbelievable when it actually happened that day.

Jimmy sighed and returned the Eruption Pokemon to its Pokeball; "Thanks Camerupt, take a rest." Then he took out the Pokeball of his other fire-type and opened it; "Typhlosion, come on out!"

The Volcano Pokemon analyzed its surroundings and prepared itself for battle.

Marina knew that they needed as much help as possible, so she decided to paralyze the Conkelcario again; "Jigglypuff, use Thunder Wave!"

The Balloon Pokemon's body crackled with electricity once again and fired another thin bolt towards the mutant, but the latter saw this coming and leaped out of the way. Then a purple spike formed on its arm and it raced towards the Fairy/Normal-type.

Marina identified the move as Poison Jab and panicked; "Jigglypuff watch ou-"

It was too late, the attack slammed into the Balloon Pokemon, causing it to fly backwards, skipping across the ground a few times before coming to a stop. After taking the super effective attack, Jigglypuff could no longer battle.

Marina solemnly returned him to his Pokeball; "You've done all that you can Jigglypuff, thank you."

Marina then realized that her earlier suspicions had been correct: Conkelcario's move set was clearly not bound to four like all other Pokemon. This thing was using way more than four moves, which made it unpredictable; "Guys, this thing is using more than four moves, keep your guards up!"

Vincent nodded at her; "I thought I noticed something out of the ordinary. Thanks for confirming that, we'll have to watch out now."

Marina turned to Mismagius and commanded it to use Mystical Fire, who obliged and breathed out swirling, magical flames that snaked around Conkelcario's body, causing it to grimace in pain. It angrily turned its attention to the Ghost-type and started running towards it with electrical energy starting to gather around its fist.

Then it felt a pain at its back, causing it to turn around and see Vincent's Quagsire, who had just used Power-up Punch. Angry, the mutant slammed its electric fist into Quagsire's chest.

Marina raised an eyebrow in confusion; "Is this thing really that forgetful? Or is it just stupid?"

The Thunder Punch didn't do a thing to the Water Fish Pokemon since its Ground-type made it immune to Electric-type attacks. Vincent smirked and decided to take advantage of the creature's confusion; "Use Iron Tail!"

Quagsire's tail hardened until its texture resembled that of steel, then it swung it at Conkelcario full-force. The hybrid took notice of this though, and leaped backward to avoid the attack. Then it smartened up and prepared to hit Quagsire with a Close Combat attack.

Vincent was actually glad that the beast had dodged the attack since it allowed Quagsire to use another, more powerful attack; "Use Stomping Tantrum!"

When everyone else heard him say this, they told their Pokemon to back away in order to not get caught in the attack. Quagsire stomped on the ground angrily, creating shockwaves that blew Conkelcario back a few feet, landing it on its back. Unfortunately, the creature just stood right back up, even angrier than before.

"_What will it take to stop you?_" Jimmy thought to himself, impressed by the creature's endurance. "Everyone, attack it all at once, and don't stop until its on the floor!"

The creature heard this and took action. Before anyone could utter a command, it slammed its fists to the ground which created stone pillars around it. But instead of using Stone Edge to protect itself, the mutant used them on all the Pokemon, knocking each of them backwards with extreme force. Each trainer scrabbled to their Pokemon to see if they were okay.

Jimmy's Typhlosion stood up first, it may have taken a super effective attack, but she wasn't one to be knocked out so easily.

Lyra's Cubone was next, Stone Edge wasn't very effective against him, so it would have been embarrassing if he was taken out by it.

Marina's Mismagius was next and was by far the most affected, there was no way it could take another attack from the monster without being knocked out.

Unfortunately, Casey's Sandslash and Vincent's Quagsire didn't get up, they were out of the battle. Their respective trainers returned and thanked them for their help. Both pulled out new Pokeballs and released their contents.

Casey's Pokeball revealed her Meganium, a very strong grass type that the purple-haired girl had selected for its ability to take hits well.

Vincent's choice for a Pokemon was his Pinsir, which was a smart choice since Bug-types resisted Fighting-type moves, but it would also limit his options for moves since both Fighting and Steel resisted Bug moves, so he would have to use other moves.

Conkelcario stared down all of its opponents, as if it were contemplating which Pokemon to attack first, then its eyes stopped at Meganium. Anticipating an attack, Casey decided to play defensive; "Use Reflect!"

Meganium's body glowed, creating a defensive barrier all around its body, now Conkelcario's physical attacks wouldn't be as effective.

Unfortunately, the mutant had decided to play it smart this time around as it quickly turned to Cubone and raced towards it as fast as it could. It readied its fist as chilling energy was starting to surround it.

Lyra panicked when she saw this; "Detect it quick!"

Cubone tried using Detect to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough and took the Ice Punch from Conkelcario's meaty fist. The super-effective impact sent him flying backwards a few feet before skidding to a stop.

"Cubone!" Lyra called out in worry.

Luckily, the Ground-type was resilient and stood back up. Unfortunately, he was starting to get really angry, as in angrier than usual.

The mutant felt two arms wrap around it and hoist it up, it looked in the corner of its eyes and found Vincent's Pinsir preparing to use Vital Throw. Conkelcario panicked and tried to escape, but Pinsir's grasp was strong and held on tight. Soon, the Bug-type threw the Aura/Muscular Pokemon a considerable distance, giving it a very hard landing.

The group didn't let the creature catch a break as Jimmy commanded Typhlosion to attack it with Flame Burst while Casey told Meganium to use Solar Beam. Typhlosion let loose another explosive fireball that crashed into Conkelcario's backside, causing the latter to groan in pain. Solar Beam would normally take 15 seconds to charge up, but since Jigglypuff had called upon a Sunny Day earlier, it charged up almost immediately. Then it released a huge yellow beam that quickly made its way to the mutant.

Unfortunately, the hybrid managed to leap up out of the way in time. As it came down, it aimed its foot towards Casey's Meganium. The younger girl didn't have a chance to react before Conkelcario landed a High Horsepower on the Herb Pokemon. Meganium was hurt by the attack, but the Reflect that it had set up earlier had lessened the effect of the Ground-type move.

Immediately following up on High Horsepower, the mutant reared its fist for a Fire Punch, which would be super effective against the Grass-type Meganium. "Quick, use Bulldoze to get it away from you!"

Meganium slammed its front legs on the ground, which kicked up the ground in front of it a few meters. The attack stopped the beast in its tracks and trapped its feet in the ground. The monster panicked and tried freeing its legs with its hands.

Jimmy eyes widened in excitement, this was the advantage that they needed; "It can't move! Everyone attack now! Typhlosion, use Aerial Ace!"

"Meganium, Solar Beam!"

"Mismagius, Thunderbolt!"

"Use Bonemerang Cubone!"

"Pinsir, use Throat Chop!"

All of the Pokemon prepared their attacks and unleashed them at once. But then the hybrid got an idea and slammed its fists to the ground, causing a pillar of rock to rise up, freeing it and raising it up where the attacks wouldn't hit it.

"_That was pretty smart. Using Stone Edge beneath it to free itself and avoid getting hit." _Lyra thought to herself, impressed by the mutants ingenuity.

The creature then leaped up into the air and prepared a Thunder Punch. Due to the sun's glaring rays, they couldn't see where Conkelcario was exactly, then it came into view on its way down. It was right above Mismagius!

Marina didn't get the chance to react before the electrical fist slammed into the Ghost-type and knocked it to the floor. The Magical Pokemon was no longer able to battle.

The blue-haired girl sighed and returned Mismagius to its Pokeball; "Thanks Mismagius." Then she took out another Pokeball, slightly reluctant to bring this particular Pokemon out, but she needed as much power as she could get, so she unleashed the ball's resident; "Let's go Bellossom!"

Jimmy, Casey, and Vincent all cringed when they heard her say this and ordered their Pokemon to stand back. Lyra was confused by this, but the others told her that it would be safe if Cubone stepped back. The brunette girl decided to trust them and told Cubone to step away, which the latter begrudgingly agreed to.

Out of Marina's pokeball came a short Grass-type, it was only around one and a half feet tall and looked rather pleasant for a Pokemon that most of the group seemed to be so afraid of. It gave a radiant smile at its opponent and didn't even look battle-ready.

The creature looked amused at its opponent and lazily prepared an ice punch.

Then the unexpected happened.

"Bellossom use Moonblast!" Marina commanded.

Bellossom's cheerful smile faded and was replaced with a malicious one. It summoned a pink ball of energy and launched it in half a second. The ball connected with the mutant, which sent it back a considerable distance.

"That was fast!" Lyra exclaimed, impressed by Bellossom's ability to charge up attacks so quickly.

Marina shook her head; "That was Bellossom's laziest, if she were actually trying, you would have missed seeing the attack if you blinked."

Jimmy shuddered at the Flower Pokemon; "She can give any member of my team a run for their money, even Typhlosion, who would have the advantage over her."

"I can see why you're all so afraid of her now..." Lyra said to them, still in shock over what just occurred.

"That leads to her downside though: she's very impatient and hates working with others. She thinks they're 'too slow'." Vincent said, explaining why everyone told their Pokemon to stand back.

The beast recovered and decided to aim for a different opponent, so it ran towards Cubone with a Close Combat ready. Lyra reacted quickly in order to avoid getting hit; "Use Detect! Then Fire Punch it!"

Time seemed to slow down for the Lonely Pokemon as it watched the mutant get closer and closer. When it was near enough, the Ground-type leaped up, narrowly avoiding the attack. Then it activated a Fire Punch and slammed its tiny fist into the Aura/Muscular Pokemon's back. Due to Cubone's small size, the attack didn't really knock the creature back that much, but it sure did hurt.

The beast stopped its attack and tried making its way toward Cubone again. But it didn't get the chance as a tornado of sharp petals surrounded and continuously grazed and damaged Conkelcario. The culprit was Bellossom using Petal Dance, a very powerful move that the user gets locked into for awhile before eventually becoming disoriented. While the move was powerful, the Pokemon using it would usually have a much harder time battling after using it.

Jimmy got an idea when he saw all of the tiny petals surrounding the hybrid; "Use Flame Burst to light those petals up!"

Typhlosion unleashed another ball of explosive firepower at Conkelcario. When it hit, the ball not only exploded, but all of the sharp petals were lit up all at once. The petal tornado now became a cyclone of flames, damaging the creature immensely.

Bellossom was having trouble keeping her footing after using Petal Dance.

"Oh no, Bellossom is confused." Lyra said, concerned.

Marina shook her head again; "Just watch."

Bellossom struggled for a few seconds before she eventually found her footing and no longer seemed confused. "Bellossom's insane nature makes Confusion much less effective on her, and it also allows her to snap out of it rather quickly." Marina explained to the now confused Lyra.

"Wow..." was all the younger girl could get out of her mouth, clearly very impressed with the Flower Pokemon.

When the twister dispersed, the group was hoping the mutant would finally go down, but alas, it still stood, even angrier than before. Conkelcario roared as sword projections started to surround it again.

Everyone had a sinking feeling when they saw this, it was the last time the beast could use Swords Dance, but now its attacks would hit 4 times as hard. This was the last straw, the creature had reached peak anger.

"Whatever you do guys... DON'T GET HIT! ANY attack from this thing may immediately take your Pokemon out!"

"Got it, Cubone use Bonemerang!"

"Pinsir, Throat Chop!"

"Dragon Tail Meganium!"

"Bellossom, Moonblast again!"

"Typhlosion, Wild Charge!"

Coming as a surprise to no one, Bellossom's attack hit first, then everyone else's attacks hit. The creature only seemed to be getting angrier and not weaker though. Conkelcario raised its fists and slammed them to the ground again, forming stone pillars around it. Then it used its strong legs to kick each of the stone pillars, which broke and launched them towards the mutant's opponents.

Lyra's Cubone and Vincent's Pinsir managed to dodge the boulders, but everyone else got hit and knocked to the ground. Bellossom got up first, which surprised no one, a large rock wasn't going to take her down. Next was Meganium, whose Reflect was technically still up. Lastly, Typhlosion was still conscious even after taking two super effective attacks from an incredibly powerful Pokemon. She struggled a lot to get on her feet, but she didn't want to give up just yet.

"Are you sure you can still battle Typhlosion?" Jimmy asked, concerned for his starter. The Volcano Pokemon got on its feet and nodded to its trainer. Jimmy smiled in appreciation; "Thanks Typhlosion."

The friends were starting to get scared, the monster just would not go down and all of their Pokemon were very close to fainting. Sure, they had more Pokemon, but this thing seemed unstoppable. Would they really make a difference?

Then a concentrated blast of water came and hit Conkelcario in the side. Angrily, the beast turned and took notice of a new opponent: a blue crocodile-like Pokemon. The group turned and saw that its trainer was...

"Khoury!" Lyra exclaimed in joy.

Sure enough, the group nerd was there, with three new faces, two males and one female behind him; "I found help guys."

"Awesome! We really need it right now, this thing just set up three Swords Dances!" Jimmy said to them.

Khoury and the other's frowned at that, but the three newcomers released their Pokemon anyway. One of the boys released a Mandibuzz, a Dark/Flying-type from Unova. The female released a Polteageist, a Ghost-type from Galar. And the other male released a Yanmega, a Bug/Flying-type from our heroes' home region, Johto.

Everyone's Pokemon gathered around the Conkelcario, ready to strike on command. The creature stared at all of its opponents, with nowhere left to run.

The Pokemon staring down the hybrid felt a lot of resentment inside of them. This thing attacked innocent people and targeted a place for Pokemon to heal quickly and safely. There was so much anger being stored up, waiting to be unleashed by the command of one word.

"Attack!" Jimmy exclaimed.

"Mandibuzz, Bone Rush!"

"Use X-Scissor Pinsir!"

"Bellossom, Drain Punch!"

"Yanmega, Air Slash!"

"Cubone, Bonemerang!"

"Meganium, Solar Beam!"

"Croconaw, Hydro Pump!"

"Use Psychic Polteageist!"

"Typhlosion, Use Blast Burn!"

Every Pokemon charged up their attacks and unleashed them. Bellossom's went first of course, followed by most everyone else. The attacks all collided with the creature, dealing constant, heavy damage that wore down the creature exponentially. Jimmy's Typhlosion went last.

The Fire-type's claws dug into the ground, causing large cracks to appear in the ground and start rapidly making their way towards Conkelcario. Then they stopped at its feet and started to glow an orange hue. Then, the ground started rumbling as red-hot flames started to erupt from the crevices, all of the other Pokemon stood back to witness one of the most powerful Fire-type attacks in the world. It was too late for Conkelcario to escape as the searing flames roared and engulfed the Aura/Muscular Pokemon.

After a few seconds, the flames stopped and the beast was still standing.

"How is it still up?" Vincent exclaimed in amazement.

Jimmy held up his hand; "Wait a minute..."

The hybrids's body started to glow electric blue, like its veins. First the light was faint, then it slowly covered its entire body, enough to have a blinding effect. Everyone shielded their eyes until the glowing eventually stopped and they heard two thuds.

Everyone turned back to the creature, except, it wasn't really there anymore, in its place was a Lucario and a Conkeldurr, now separated from one another. The entire group silenced themselves after seeing this occur.

Unfortunately, someone had to ruin it. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Vincent exclaimed, completely mind-boggled by what had just transpired.

"They split, which means their fusion wasn't created to be permanent." Jimmy guessed, trying his best to make sense of the situation.

"If it wasn't permanent, then there is no way this could have been natural. This has to be the work of humans." Khoury mused, though still baffled by the event.

Casey scratched her head in confusion; "But what human would be so awful to merge two Pokemon together and not consider any side-effects? Besides, it's just cruel to force two lives to suddenly become one!" However, it seemed she was the only one who was confused, as everyone else stared at her s if she didn't have any brain cells.

Casey soon realized what they were talking about and gave an embarrassed laugh; "Oh... Team Rocket."

Lyra walked up to both Pokemon and placed a hand on each of their chests. Then suddenly, her eyes widened as she went into panic mode; "Guys, their heartbeats are fading! We have to get medical help!"

Jimmy mirrored the same reaction when he heard this; "I'll call the Pokemon Center, they'll know what to do!"

"But the Pokemon Center was destroyed!" Marina reminded him.

Jimmy grimaced, but then remembered something; "Call the hospital in Blackthorn City! They aren't too far!"

"But wouldn't it still take awhile for them to get here?" Lyra worried.

Jimmy shook his head; "They'll take a helicopter here if they know how serious the problem is."

Khoury whipped out his phone and quickly dialed the number of the hospital. He had to memorize all of the hospital numbers since he used to be in charge of finding help whenever Lyra had a Megalophobia attack. He informed them on the situation and how serious the situation was and then hung up when said they on their way. "They're coming by helicopter, they'll be here in under five minutes." Khoury said, shedding some light on the situation.

"Good, we'll wait here with the Pokemon until they arrive." Jimmy proposed to them. Then he turned to the three trainers that had aided them in their battle against the mutant that day; "Thank you for your help today, you may leave if you want, we can handle this."

The trainer in the middle, one of the males, shook his head; "I'd like to stay until I know that these two will be in good hands."

"I'd like to stay as well." The female said to them, also wanting to make sure the Aura Pokemon and the Muscular Pokemon will be in good hands.

The other boy gave them an apologetic look; "I'd love to stay, but I'm actually late for something right now."

"It's fine, thanks again for your help." Jimmy said to him.

The other boy left and everyone else just stood there, waiting for the helicopter to arrive. Lyra had flipped the two Fighting-types on their backsides so that they could breathe better. The group just stood in silence as they watched the two Pokemon slowly breathing in and out, constantly hoping that neither would stop. Vincent tried to start a few conversations, but everyone else didn't seem to be in the talking mood, so he eventually gave up and stood in silence as well.

As they waited, Jimmy started to feel guilty. Was it his fault that the Pokemon needed to be rushed to the hospital? Maybe he should have pulled back on attacking and used weaker moves. Then again, that might not have stopped the creature. He clenched his fist and mentally kicked himself, he should've found another way, he should've-

The boy's thoughts were interrupted by a loud whirring. He looked up to see a large white and red helicopter that was large enough to have a room for medical treatment. 4 individuals brought out two stretchers, a normal-sized-one for Lucario, and a larger one for Conkeldurr.

After a minute or two, the Pokemon were hoisted onto the stretchers and taken inside of the helicopter. One of the attendants thanked them for informing them about the situation and climbed back on the air vehicle. Once everyone was on and all of the doors were closed, the rotors started spinning. The helicopter lifted itself up and flew off towards Blackthorn City.

Jimmy stared at the helicopter that appeared to be getting smaller as it moved farther away. He couldn't help but worry about what would happen to those two innocent Pokemon, the behavior of the mutant was likely not their fault.

Then he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Marina, who smiled at him; "Don't worry Jimmy, those people know what their doing."

That reassured the boy a little bit; "You're right, I'm just worried."

"You have every right to be worried. Now come on, we should go clean up the damage that Conkelcario caused." Marina proposed.

"Yeah, alright."

* * *

**Meanwhile...**

Conkeldurr struggled to open his eyes in the intense white light. "Try to relax", a voice said to him. The Fighting-type decided to listen and waited for his eyes to adjust to the intense light. After a few seconds, it was able to see a white room with a bunch of people in blue coats surrounding him. Slightly frightened by the amount of people in the room, the Muscular Pokemon freaked out and tried moving around; but the person closest to him placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we aren't here to hurt you, we want to help you get better." They said.

Conkeldurr was then hit with a wave of exhaustion, he couldn't quite remember what had happened, but it clearly had been a long day for him. The Fighting-type tried to think about how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was being returned to a Pokeball then being placed inside of a machine of some kind. From there it was really blurry to the Fighting-type, like it wasn't in control of its body; but now it was here, in control once again.

Conkeldurr remembered something else before his memory went awry. His friend, who was a Lucario had also been placed in the machine...

The Fighting-type shot up out of his bed and started looking around frantically, trying his best to find his friend. The attendants freaked out and tried pushing him back down. "Please stop! You need rest!" one of them said.

Conkeldurr was then hit with another wave of exhaustion and laid back down on the hospital bed.

"Are you looking for your friend?" one of the attendants asked.

Unable to communicate by speech, Conkeldurr only nodded.

"Don't worry, he's in the room next to us." the attendant said, pointing to the wall closest to Conkeldurr's.

The Muscular Pokemon sighed and relaxed, at least its buddy was okay. Now that he didn't have much else to worry about, he scanned the room that he was in. No machines were hooked up to him, so his injury or illness must not have been too terrible. There were a few silver trays with many unfamiliar devices on them that were probably used on him while he was unconscious.

Then, he noticed a faint beeping coming from the other room. It was slow, constant and weirdly soothing. The beeping gave Conkeldurr something to focus its mind on other than the amount of people surrounding him.

_Beep..._

_Beep..._

_Beep..._

The Fighting-type smiled, appreciative of the beeping's consistency.

Eventually, the beeping started slowing down, as if whatever was making them had its power turned down. This didn't exactly please Conkeldurr. He wanted to tell the attendants to turn it back up. But it couldn't speak English and that would be selfish. The machine that made the beeping was probably very important and the speed of it probably couldn't be helped without disrupting something.

When the beeps slowed down, a human came into the room and frantically spoke to some of the attendants in his own room. Conkeldurr couldn't hear their conversation as he was so invested in focusing on the beeping. The attendants quickly left the room as if something important had just happened.

_Beep..._

_Beep..._

_Beep..._

They seemed to be getting consistently more spread out as time went by, which made Conkeldurr frown. Why were they getting slower?

The Fighting-type then noticed that there was also a lot of other noises starting to come from the room. All of them sounded frantic or unpleasant, so he tried his best to ignore them and focus on the beeping, even if the consistency was no longer there.

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep..._

The suddenly, it stopped. Well, it didn't really stop, more like the constant beeping was instead replaced by one long beep.

This didn't make Conkeldurr happy. Why'd it have to stop? Saddened, he just decided to block out all other sounds and rest his eyes.

Then an attendant came in, causing the Muscular Pokemon's eyes to open and look at them.

She seemed rather sad; "Conkeldurr, we have some bad news about Lucario..."

Conkeldurr gave her a look of confusion. What had happened to Lucario? Did Lucario have something to do with why the beeping stopped?

* * *

**Well everyone, that's the end of chapter 10, my longest so far.**

**Next is Lyra's gym battle, which I'm very excited to write.**

**Next chapter: Dry Ice**


End file.
